Here's what wikipedia says on the "Almond" page: Sweet and bitter almonds
There are two forms of the plant, one (often with white flowers) producing sweet almonds, and the other (often with pink flowers) producing bitter almonds. The kernel of the former contains a fixed oil and emulsion. As late as the early 20th century the oil was used internally in medicine, with the stipulation that it must not be adulterated with that of the bitter almond; it remains fairly popular in alternative medicine, particularly as a carrier oil in aromatherapy, but has fallen out of prescription among doctors. The bitter almond is rather broader and shorter than the sweet almond, and contains about 50% of the fixed oil which also occurs in sweet almonds. It also contains the enzyme emulsin which, in the presence of water, acts on a soluble glucoside, amygdalin, yielding glucose, cyanide and the essential oil of bitter almonds, which is nearly pure benzaldehyde. Bitter almonds may yield from 4–9 mg of hydrogen cyanide per almond.[12][13] Extract of bitter almond was once used medicinally, but even in small doses effects are severe and in larger doses can be deadly; the cyanide must be removed before consumption.[14] On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 1:42 PM, Marshall Dudley <mdud...@king-cart.com> wrote: > Perhaps bitter almond can refer to either. Here are some sites indicating > that bitter almond is an alternative name for apricot seeds: > > http://www.asiachi.com/apricotseed.html > http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/10517054/Blanched_Sweet_Bitter_Almond_Apricot_Kernel.html > http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/txfood/product-detailRAnQUfxTdrkh/China-Bitter-Almonds-Apricots-Kernels.html > > Interestingly all the sites seem to be associated with Chinese or India > sources. > > Marshall -- Alan Jones -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
