SC - Pottage called Peach-Dish

[Decker, Terry D.]

Rather than arsenic may I suggest you mean cyanide, one of the traditional
murder methods of a certain class of mystery novels ("Yes, Inspector, the
body's lips are blue and there is a faint scent of bitter almond.  I deduce
this man has been poisoned with cyanide!").

Bitter almond is Prunus dulcis var. amara, an almond tree related to the
peach, Prunus persica.  Bitter almond oil is squeezed from the kernals of
the bitter almond and consists primarily of benzaldehyde (used in perfumes,
as a solvent and as a flavoring agent) and a little hydrocyanic acid (which
is removed from the oil).

The lowest known ingested amount causing death was .56mg cyanide/kg of body
weight/day, according to http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/phs8812.html

As vitamin B12, cyanide is part of the human diet helping to prevent anemia.

I would be more concerned with peach and apricot pits and small children,
because their body mass may not be up to handling the slightly higher
concentrations of hydrocyanic acid found in those pits.

Bear


> One might wish to be careful with the serving of peach pits even as 
> a jest as the inner seed (also known as bitter almonds) is a source
> of Arsenic. A couple of bitter almonds will not hurt most people, more
> than that will kill you.  How many more I am not sure.
> 
> Sincerly,
> Ealasaid