Abstract
Plants that are able to liberate significant amounts of HCN are referred to as cyanogenic. The main source of the cyanide is the so-called cyanogenic glucosides. These compounds consist of α-hydroxynitriles, also called cyanohydrins, which are stabilized by a sugar. Nearly 3,000 plant species have been reported to be cyanogenic.1,2 The HCN liberated from cyanogenic plants is thought to be an important ecological factor, e.g. in plant defence against herbivores, and must be clearly distinguished from low levels of HCN production during ethylene biosynthesis in intact plants.3 The amounts of HCN produced during ethylene synthesis are several magnitudes lower than those concentrations resulting from cyanogenesis due to tissue disruption.
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Selmar, D. (1999). Cyanide in Foods. In: Romeo, J.T. (eds) Phytochemicals in Human Health Protection, Nutrition, and Plant Defense. Recent Advances in Phytochemistry, vol 33. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4689-4_14
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