Cyanide Toxicity: Causes, Effects and Prevention

Running head: CYANIDE TOXICITY
Cyanide Toxicity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Answer to Question 1.
The term food contamination refers to the presence of microorganisms and chemical
substances that are capable of affecting the health condition of the individuals. The case of
food contamination can make the patients ill by causing infection in the body of the
individuals. The incident of the food contamination can occur by multiple ways and they are
mainly chemical contamination, biological contamination, physical contamination and cross
contamination of the food materials. Cyanide is one the most toxic chemicals that can harm
individuals as a part of the food contamination (Ballantyne, 2013).
Cyanide refers to a potentially deadly chemical that exists in the various forms in the
food products. It is stated that, the substance cyanide generally releases from various natural
foods and from some plants such as Cassava, almonds and lima beans. Not only that, a few
fruit seeds such as seeds of apricots, apples, and peaches may have substances that can
produce cyanide after the metabolism of the substances. However, the edible part of these
food products contain very low amount of such substances (CDC, 2019). The term cyanide
contamination refers to the contamination of the food particles due to the presence of cyanide
in the food components and the amount is above the permissible limit of the cyanide. In
natural resources, cyanide is present as cyanide glycosides in the seeds of fruits. The
metabolism of the cyanides causes formation of β-cyanoalanine and it is then transformed to
asparagine (Bernhardt et al., 2017).
The issue of the cyanide contamination in the food chain is mainly incorporated
through the soils, waters and other food products. It is stated that, the cyanide can easily
contaminate the water resources of the environment. Moreover, the cyanide from the
industrial waste products can assimilate with the water bodies of the urban areas. Not only
that, such cyanide components can also contaminate the soils. The cyanides in the soils can

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come from the metallurgic industry and galvanizing industry as well. In the soil, the cyanide
is mostly present as complexes such as Fe(CN)6 3− and Fe(CN)6 4− . Although the level of
toxicity is very much low, still it is deposited in the soil (Okike et al., 2015). After prolonged
period of time, this deposited cyanide particles present in the water and soil is absorbed by
the plants and those particles are transmitted in to the vegetables and crops. Whenever, an
individual eats those vegetables and crops, then the cyanide transfers into the body of the
individuals. Along with this, the animals who eats those crops and vegetables also have
cyanides in their body and when humans intake those animals as a non-vegetarian source of
foods, then the humans are also exposed to those cyanide ions. Apart from the aforesaid
ways, cyanide can enter in to the food chain through the human beings whenever they
touches soil containing the cyanide particles. Therefore, it can be said the cyanide poisoning
can enter into the natural food chains not only from the natural but from the artificial sources
as well (Mousavi et al., 2013).
It is reported that, one of the major reason of food contamination by the cyanide
compound is completely associated with the unconscious consumption of the large amount of
poorly processed foods such as Cassava. Not only this, another food component named
manioc, linamarin is present in the bitter variety of this components. The alteration of the
food safety by the cyanide is associated with formation of hydrogen cyanide (Bernhardt et
al.,2017). For example it can be said that decomposition of the amygdalin inside the human
body occurs due to the hydrolysis of the component by using the enzyme named β-
glucosidase and thereby causes the formation of α-hydroxynitrile. This compound at the high
pH values (More than 6) dissociates into ketone, sugar and hydrogen cyanide that is the
primary reason of food contamination (Anseeuw et al.,2013).
It is reported that, apple seeds contain a good amount of cyanide compound. It is
reported that apple seeds contain almost 700 milligrams of hydrogen cyanide per kilogram.