Healing Plants with Cyanide

(Page 2 of 2)

March/April 1999
By C. Leigh Broadhurst, Ph.D.,and James A. Duke, Ph.D. 
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Traditional herbal preparations of wild cherry and bitter almond probably contained cyanogenic glycosides or they wouldn’t have been considered helpful for so long. However, today’s commercial almond extracts (those used for cooking) and cherry cough syrups are unlikely to produce any HCN because grinding and high temperatures used during processing release the compound.

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Elderberry and eucalyptus also are traditional remedies for coughs, colds, and flu, but their healing properties are probably not from cyanogenic glycosides alone—other phytochemicals provide more benefits. Note that elderberry bark, leaves, and unripe berries can produce toxic levels of HCN, so if you like to collect and use wild elderberry, make a tea from the flowers or cooked ripe berries.

Flaxmeal (what’s left after the oil is pressed out) is used as bulk animal feed, with no major toxicity reported from the cyanogenic glycosides contained in the whole plant. The oil pressing and grinding processes liberate some or all of the HCN. Flaxseed meal and whole flaxseed in smaller quantities of 25 to 75 g per day are considered safe and beneficial for humans. If you have concerns, cooking or baking flaxseed meal, which is already ground, will certainly release any remaining HCN.

Additional reading

Bell, E. A., B. V. Charlwood, eds. Secondary Plant Products. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1980.

Bhatty, R. S., P. Cherdkiatyumchai. “Compositional analysis of laboratory-prepared and commercial samples of linseed meal and hull isolated from flax.” Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society 1990, 67:79–84.

Cunnane, S. C., et al. “High a a-linoleic flaxseed (Linum usitaissimum): Some nutritional properties.” British Journal of Nutrition 1993, 69:443–453.

Jones, D. A. “Why are so many food plants cyanogenic?” Phytochemistry 1998, 47:155–162.

C. Leigh Broadhurst holds a doctorate in geochemistry and is a nutrition consultant in Clovery, Maryland.

James Duke is a member of the Herbs for Health Editorial Advisory Board. His most recent book is The Green Pharmacy (Rodale, 1997). 

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