Potential toxicity of cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin and bitter apricot seed in rabbits—Health status evaluation

Kováčiková, Eva; Kováčik, Anton; Halenár, Marek; Tokárová, Katarína; Chrastinová, Ľubica; Ondruška, Ľubomír; Jurčík, Rastislav; Kolesár, Eduard; Valuch, Jozef; Kolesárová, Adriana

doi:10.1111/jpn.13055

Cited by 31 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Clinical symptoms of acute cyanide poisoning, which usually occur less than 1 min after inhalation and within a few minutes after ingestion, include rapid respiration, a drop in blood pressure, rapid pulse, headache, dizziness, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, mental confusion, stupor, blue discoloration of the skin due to lack of oxygen (cyanosis), twitching and convulsions to coma and death [19][20][21]. A series of poisoning cases (adults, children, livestock) has been reported from the ingestion of bitter apricot kernels [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Long-term exposure to sublethal concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides can present ongoing health issues, such as Konzo, an irreversible motor neuron disease with clinical signs including the inability to walk, limited arm movement, and speech difficulties [29,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accumulation Pattern of Amygdalin and Prunasin and Its Correlation with Fruit and Kernel Agronomic Characteristics during Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Kernel Development

Deng

Cui

Zhu

et al. 2021

Foods

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To reveal the accumulation pattern of cyanogenic glycosides (amygdalin and prunasin) in bitter apricot kernels to further understand the metabolic mechanisms underlying differential accumulation during kernel development and ripening and explore the association between cyanogenic glycoside accumulation and the physical, chemical and biochemical indexes of fruits and kernels during fruit and kernel development, dynamic changes in physical characteristics (weight, moisture content, linear dimensions, derived parameters) and chemical and biochemical parameters (oil, amygdalin and prunasin contents, β-glucosidase activity) of fruits and kernels from ten apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars were systematically studied at 10 day intervals, from 20 days after flowering (DAF) until maturity. High variability in most of physical, chemical and biochemical parameters was found among the evaluated apricot cultivars and at different ripening stages. Kernel oil accumulation showed similar sigmoid patterns. Amygdalin and prunasin levels were undetectable in the sweet kernel cultivars throughout kernel development. During the early stages of apricot fruit development (before 50 DAF), the prunasin level in bitter kernels first increased, then decreased markedly; while the amygdalin level was present in quite small amounts and significantly lower than the prunasin level. From 50 to 70 DAF, prunasin further declined to zero; while amygdalin increased linearly and was significantly higher than the prunasin level, then decreased or increased slowly until full maturity. The cyanogenic glycoside accumulation pattern indicated a shift from a prunasin-dominated to an amygdalin-dominated state during bitter apricot kernel development and ripening. β-glucosidase catabolic enzyme activity was high during kernel development and ripening in all tested apricot cultivars, indicating that β-glucosidase was not important for amygdalin accumulation. Correlation analysis showed a positive correlation of kernel amygdalin content with fruit dimension parameters, kernel oil content and β-glucosidase activity, but no or a weak positive correlation with kernel dimension parameters. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the variance accumulation contribution rate of the first three principal components totaled 84.56%, and not only revealed differences in amygdalin and prunasin contents and β-glucosidase activity among cultivars, but also distinguished different developmental stages. The results can help us understand the metabolic mechanisms underlying differential cyanogenic glycoside accumulation in apricot kernels and provide a useful reference for breeding high- or low-amygdalin-content apricot cultivars and the agronomic management, intensive processing and exploitation of bitter apricot kernels.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accumulation Pattern of Amygdalin and Prunasin and Its Correlation with Fruit and Kernel Agronomic Characteristics during Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Kernel Development

Deng

Cui

Zhu

et al. 2021

Foods

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“…After consumption of apricot or bitter almond seeds, hydrogen cyanide can be produced in high enough level to pose a possible chronic toxicity problem (Miller et al, 1981;Tušimová et al, 2017). According to Shragg, Albertson, and Fisher (1982), amygdalin may be 40 times more toxic by peroral way as compared to intravenous or intramuscular application (Casarett, Doull, Klaassen, & Amdur, 1980;Kováčiková et al, 2019). According to Shragg, Albertson, and Fisher (1982), amygdalin may be 40 times more toxic by peroral way as compared to intravenous or intramuscular application (Casarett, Doull, Klaassen, & Amdur, 1980;Kováčiková et al, 2019).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moertel et al (1981) observed that different ways of amygdalin administration play an important role in organism. According to Shragg, Albertson, and Fisher (1982), amygdalin may be 40 times more toxic by peroral way as compared to intravenous or intramuscular application (Casarett, Doull, Klaassen, & Amdur, 1980;Kováčiková et al, 2019). Therefore, the Food Drug Administration (FDA) banned to sale of amygdalin as a natural medication.…”

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confidence: 99%

Long‐term peroral administration of bitter apricot seeds influences cortical bone microstructure of rabbits

Kováčová¹,

Sarocka²,

Blahová³

et al. 2019

Animal Physiology Nutrition

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Apricot seeds due to the presence of cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin belong to the popular “alternative cancer cures", although anticancer effect of amygdalin remains controversial. This in vivo study points to the effect of long‐term peroral administration of bitter apricot seeds on bone microstructure of rabbits since chronic amygdalin toxicity in relation to bone parameters has not been investigated yet. Rabbits (n = 16) were randomly divided into four experimental groups of 4 animals each. Three experimental groups S1, S2 and S3 received commercial feed for rabbits mixed with crushed bitter apricot seeds at doses 60, 300 and 420 mg/kg bw during five months, respectively. The control (C) group received no apricot seeds. The long‐term consumption of apricot seeds had no impact on total body weight, femoral weight and femoral length of rabbits. Also, microcomputed tomography (3D analysis) of cortical and trabecular bone tissues did not reveal any significant impact of amygdalin toxicity on relative bone volume, BMD, cortical bone thickness, bone surface, trabecular number, thickness, and their separation. On the other hand, histological (2D) analysis demonstrated evident changes in cortical bone microstructure consistent with a decreased density of secondary osteons in the middle part of substantia compacta due to a replacement of Haversian bone tissue by plexiform bone tissue, vasoconstriction in the primary osteons' vascular canals, Haversian canals, and decreased sizes of secondary osteons in rabbits from S1, S2 and S3 groups. These negative changes are associated with different vascularization and biomechanical properties of cortical bones.

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“…Amygdalin is one of the main biologically active substances present in apricot seeds, hot almonds, flax seeds, and others (Tanwar et al, 2019). The effect of AMG present in apricot seeds has been partially described in our previous studies using the porcine model (Halenar et al, 2015), rabbits (Halenar et al, 2017;Kolesar et al, 2018;Kovacikova et al, 2019) and humans (Kopčeková et al, 2018;Kovacikova et al, 2017). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of apricot seeds on microscopic characteristics of rabbit liver in vivo.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The field of nutritional research focuses on phytonutrients and their beneficial properties on health. Phytonutrients, which include in particular polyphenols, flavonoids (isoquercitrin, rutin, quercetin, and others) (Roychoudhury et al, 2018;Kolesarova et al, 2019), ellagitannins, especially punicalagin and ellagic acid (Packova et al, 2015), glycosides (amygdalin) (Halenar et al, 2015(Halenar et al, , 2017Kolesar et al, 2018;Kopcekova et al, 2018;Kovacikova et al, 2019) and others are known to possess potential antioxidant and antitumor activity and the ability to eliminate environmental stress-induced reprotoxicity (Kolesarova et al, 2012;Halenar et al, 2015). Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide and is the second leading cause of death in the United States (Siegel et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Apricot Seeds on Microscopic Structure of Rabbit Liver

Kolesárová¹,

Džurňáková²,

Michalcová³

et al. 2020

J microb biotech food sci

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Natural phytosubstances, such as amygdalin, used in alternative medicine has gained popularity. However, some researchers suspect the protective properties of amygdalin due to a lack of clinical studies. The aim of the present in vivo study was to determine the effect of apricot seed administration on microscopic changes in the liver using a rabbit as a biological model. Sixteen male rabbits 45 days old were randomly divided into four groups (control group without any apricot seed administration, and experimental groups fed by crushed apricot seeds at the doses 60, 300 and 420 mg/kg b.w., mixed with commercial feed), which was administered orally a daily during a ten-month period. The liver tissue samples were evaluated by histological analysis. Significant changes were observed in the microscopic structure of rabbit livers after apricot seed ingestion. The morphometric evaluation of rabbit livers after the application of apricot seeds showed an increase of binucleated cells in the vena centralis region (P≤0.001) at the highest dose and in the peripheral zone at all the doses used (P≤0.001, P≤0.01, P≤0.05) compared to control. On the other hand, distinct inhibition in the number of binucleated cells in the region vena centralis at the doses 300 (P≤0.01) and 420 mg/kg b.w. (P≤0.05) and in the peripheral zone at all the doses used (P≤0.001, P≤0.01) was observed. No significant differences between the control and experimental groups in vena centralis after apricot seed treatment were found (P≥0.05). In addition, the effect of apricot seeds on the relative volume of liver structures – vena centralis, stroma and parenchyma after the application of apricot seeds to rabbit males were assessed. No significant differences between control and experimental groups in the relative volume of vena centralis were found (P≥0.05). On the other hand, the relative volume of the stroma was increased at doses 60 (P≤0.05) and 300 (P≤0.01) mg/kg b.w. Interestingly, the relative volume of parenchyma was significantly decreased (P≤0.05) after the application of apricot seeds in two experimental groups 60 and 300 mg/kg b.w. The current study provides experimental evidence that apricot seeds might affect the liver microscopic structure in rabbits in vivo and thus amygdalin present in apricot seeds might present a potential risk for animal health. However, the toxic effect could not be accurately corroborated, as in many cases changes were dose-dependent and not recorded at the highest dose used in the study.

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Potential toxicity of cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin and bitter apricot seed in rabbits—Health status evaluation

Cited by 31 publications

References 35 publications

Accumulation Pattern of Amygdalin and Prunasin and Its Correlation with Fruit and Kernel Agronomic Characteristics during Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Kernel Development

Accumulation Pattern of Amygdalin and Prunasin and Its Correlation with Fruit and Kernel Agronomic Characteristics during Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Kernel Development

Long‐term peroral administration of bitter apricot seeds influences cortical bone microstructure of rabbits

The Effect of Apricot Seeds on Microscopic Structure of Rabbit Liver

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