Apricot Kernels



[email protected] (David Wright) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
> So what? The pips aren't intended to be digestible. In fact, that's part of the seed's survival
> mechanism. Fruit is a bribe to induce animals to eat the seeds, which are then scattered in the
> animal's droppings. But digesting the seeds releases cyanide -- so that's the inducement to the
> animal *not* to digest the seeds.
>
> -- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net These are my opinions only, but they're almost
> always correct. "If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my
> shoulders." (Hal Abelson, MIT)

Wright is half right as usual.

The pulp is the way the apple tree gets its seeds spread around. The animal will release some of the
seeds in the feces. Now the seed is hidden in the feces and next spring it can germinate with an
ample supply of fertilizer to help it grow.

However, some of the seeds will be crushed by chewing and the nutrients released. All creatures
designed to eat that fruit will have the needed enzymes to utilize the nutrients and detoxify any
toxic components.

The seeds contain a nitrile, not a cyanide. Big, big difference. That fact is where the -ile in
laetrile comes from.

DrC PhD