Published in “Rising Nepal, Friday Supplement”, 5 September 2014
-Sampurna Lata Tuladhar.
On the recent Father’s Day, I made individual cake for each of my family member with different flavors- strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. I used cherry in all of them. I usually buy cherries without seeds but this time I took another brand which had seeds. I separated seeds from cherries and kept them. During my childhood, my granduncle had told us that eating seeds of fruit after having the fruit would help neutralize any bad elements that the fruit contains. So eating fruits with seed has been one of my habits. As I am not a professional cake maker, I was really tired of making many cakes. In the evening I and my husband were having some relaxing time. I brought the seeds and offered him to eat them. It was delicious. We had snacks and wine too. After a while I saw him falling asleep in couch. I thought he slept because he was very tired. I felt itching in my eyes. I thought of putting some eye drops. I still felt dizzy, which I thought was due to wine. The uneasiness was however bearable for me.
As usual I tried to learn something about cherry seeds that I just had. I googled and what I saw was a big shock to me. It was written, “Yes, Apple Seeds and Cherry Seeds are Poisonous”. My god! It said that if we eat enough apple seeds or cherry seed, we could die. I searched more about cherry seeds but every article confirmed that eating much cherry seeds is deadly. I searched for treatment and it required injections of some kind of drugs.
What should I do now? We have a little kid. What if we both don’t wake up next morning? To whom should I inform at 2300 hours of the day? Finally, I decided to inform the incident to my younger sister. I messaged her to call me tomorrow morning thrice in my CDMA and if no one picks it up, then she should check my home. I slept with hope that everything would be okay. Thank God! We were alive the next morning. We were able to detoxify the toxic compound of about 15 cherry seeds.
Fact:
Apple seeds contain cyanogenic acids. Cherry seeds, and seeds from related fruits, including peaches, plums, almonds, pears, and apricots, contain cyanogenic glycosides. Our body can detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. Accidental swallowing a seed or two of apple or cherry will be fine. Our body absorbs a minimum amount of toxic compound swallowing several of whole seeds. Remember that, chewing the seeds makes them much more hazardous to health. Children and pets are much more likely to suffer poisoning from eating the seeds. There was a news that a dog had died eating a lot of cherry seeds that his master spitted.
Whatever you do, don’t eat a broken seed. Beside from tasting bitter and generally being impossible to chew, the stones of certain stone fruits, like cherries, apricots, plums and peaches, contain cyanogenic compounds, the stuff that our body can turn into cyanide. So, how many cherry seeds could turn lethal? Hydrogen cyanide is lethal at about 1.52 milligrams per kilogram, meaning that it takes little more than 0.1 grams of the toxin to dispatch a 150-pound human. A single cherry yields roughly 0.17 grams of lethal cyanide per gram of seed, so depending on the size of the kernel, ingesting just one or two freshly crushed seeds can lead to death.
Symptoms of the seed poisoning:
Symptoms of poisoning include headache; dizziness; confusion; anxiety; irritation of the mucous membrane of the eyes, throat and upper respiratory tract; burning sensation on the tongue; metallic taste in the mouth; feeling of pressure in the forehead; nausea and vomiting. Larger doses can lead to difficulty breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and kidney failure. Reactions can include coma, convulsions, and death from respiratory arrest. If any related symptoms are experienced by a person, he should move immediately into fresh air, preferably where it is warm, and, if necessary, undergo the first aid treatment.
Treatment:
There are several treatment options, but the main thing is to limit the absorption of the chemicals from the seeds. But it’s important to seek immediate medical attention if a child or pet is known to have eaten several seeds. Usually, the plan of action is to pump the stomach or induce vomiting. Antidotes are available, but they are somewhat controversial.
Someone eating a seed or two is okay; our body is well equipped to detoxify small quantities of cyanide compounds. They naturally occur in several foods.
Yes, apple seeds and cherry seeds are poisonous.