Bitter almonds, forbidden food?



The bitter almonds are the seeds inside the shell of the fruit of the plant Prunus amygdalus, are called armelline and are nothing more than the pits of apricots .

Some varieties of apricot kernels are sweeter and edible and it seems we have properties and benefits for health, while instead the more the flavor of the stone is bitter the more it is not recommended for food consumption because it is poisonous.

As the name indicates, these almonds have a bitter taste and are usually used as a flavoring in cosmetics or in pastry for desserts and syrups or in traditional recipes such as the famous amaretti . The bitter taste is given by a substance contained in the seeds, the amygdalin.

On the contrary, sweet almonds are the fruits of the almond tree ; the visual difference between the two almond seeds is a broad base and greater height for bitter almonds.

Amygdalin, a harmful or beneficial substance?

Amygdalin is a vitamin called vitamin B17 or laetrile ; this substance is a cyanogenic glucoside that is broken down and transformed into hydrocyanic acid during ingestion.

In practice it is a substance similar to cyanide which for the human body is very poisonous and can lead to serious damage up to a fatal outcome with the ingestion of 5-10 seeds for the child and fifty for the adult.

The fatal dose of hydrocyanic acid is only 50 mg and cyanide poisoning when it is milder causes headache, vomiting, confusion up to increased heart rate and convulsions.

Since the days of Hippocratic medicine, however, bitter almond water obtained from the pits of apricots and peaches was a healthy remedy in the ancient Greek world.

To date, some experimental research has associated anti-cancer effects with this substance because its harmfulness is capable of blocking tumor growth. In 1950 Ernst Krebs hypothesized and tried to prove that the healthy cells of our body have an enzyme capable of protecting themselves from amygdalin, while the cancer cells lacking this enzyme cause the production of hydrocyanic acid and therefore the killing of the same damaged cells.

It was Krebs who called this substance as vitamin B17 even though it has not yet been recognized as an essential substance for biological functions and there are not enough scientific studies to show that the lack of this enzyme is only in cancer cells.

It is therefore indicated for some alternative treatments with a daily but limited consumption of bitter almonds such as anti-cancer foods.

The risk of such treatments is however high and also very variable from person to person. Extreme caution is advised for the toxicity of amygdalin and to avoid DIY to avoid health risks.

Discover also the recipes to prepare toasted and caramelized almonds

Why harmful substances in the seeds?

The plant produces the fruit to be eaten, while the seed represents its lineage: it wants to make sure that the seed lives and is born by producing other seedlings; the mother plant therefore protects the seeds by inserting harmful substances to prevent them from being eaten by animals.

The sugary and palatable substances are found in the pulp so that it is eaten and the seed, perhaps passing intact in the stomach, transported far away.

The core in fact in these fruits is hard to protect the seed that will sprout once the fruit has fallen to the ground or has been evacuated by the animal that ate it.

Discover the properties of almond oil for the skin

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