Are apple seeds poisonous?

Are apple seeds poisonous? Are the pips in an apple poisonous?

Everyone has heard this question, and the answer is: Yes, but only under fairly extreme circumstances. The seeds of apples contain a substance called amygdaline that can release cyanide under certain conditions, for example, if it comes into contact with digestive enzymes. The cyanide is linked to sugars in the form of cyanogenic glycoside and these cyanide releasing compounds are remarkably common in nature. They are found in more than 2000 plant species. For example, they are in plums, peaches, apricots and of course bitter almonds. It is often said that cyanide smells like bitter almonds, but it's actually the other way around; bitter almonds smell like cyanide.

You need about 1 milligram of cyanide per kilogram of body weight to kill a human being. Apple seeds contain about 700 milligrams of cyanide per kilogram, so about 100 grams of apple seeds should be enough to put a person of 70 kilograms. But that's an incredible amount of pips, even if you wouldn't eat the rest of the apple. In addition, the seeds need to be ground very finely to allow the enzymes to get to the amygdaline.

Suppose a pit weighs 0.7 grams, you should eat 143 pips. Apples contain between 2 and 20 pips, but an apple from the supermarket contains an average of 8 pips. So you should eat about 18 apple in a row!

So it's safe to eat an apple all the way. As long as you don't eat a whole bowl of ground pits.