What is the purpose of cyanide in cherry pits?

Question

I read that in large quantities, cherry pits can cause harm because they contain a small amount of cyanide. What is the cynaide for?

Answer 1

First, all cherry pits contain small amounts of cyanide and cause poisoning if eaten in large quantities. The key is the dosage or amount as with any product. For example, plain old table salt--a necessary mineral for the body, however, too much and it is all over. Having said that, I don't think many people eat the pits.

As for the purpose--many creatures depend on plants for their food. Even insects, bacteria and viruses get their nourishment from plants. With so many enemies, plants must have a good defense. Imagine you are the cherry tree and your worst enemy is about to make a tasty meal of your fruit (which, after all, you use to make more cherry trees). You can't run away or use a karate kick for defense. What can you do? One way plants fight back is to make poisons. Poisons can warn away enemies by making leaves or fruit taste bitter, or by making the enemy very dizzy or sick.

Answer 2

The cyanide is there pretty much for the reason you think it is: to kill critters (or at the very least make them sick).

The cyanide in a cherry tree occurs in most of the places it's likely to get eaten and doesn't want to be. Some cherry trees have a lot of cyanide in their leaves. They have none in the cherries themselves because they WANT the cherries to be eaten by herbivores so they'll get spread around (when they 'pass through', so to speak). It's a good survival strategy. But they DON'T want the seeds themselves to be eaten. And that's the 'pit' of the cherry. So the pits have the cyanide defense.

Because the seed is SUPPOSED to pass through an herbivore there isn't a lot of cyanide in the pit itself... but there's enough there to make you sick or kill you if you start eating cherry pits like they were chestnuts.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Its actually quite easy to make, but if you're going to poison someone why waste your time making cyanide when there are much more potent poisons out there that are readily available and less obvious. EDIT: I highly doubt Hitler knew how to create the Hydrogen Cyanide himself.

Answer 5

Cyanide is what's called a "secondary compound" in plants. Secondary compounds are things that plants make primarily to deter herbivores. There are tons of examples of secondary compounds, including caffiene, asprin, and many others that we use as drugs.

Answer 6

I wonder if it isn't to make the herbavore just a little sick, ensuring that the pit gets passed through the digestive tract quickly, "planting" it before it gets digested.....

Answer 7

All cherry pits contain small amounts of cyanide and cause poisoning if eaten in large quantities. The key is the dosage or amount as with any product- for example, plain ole table salt--a necessary mineral for the body, however, too much and it is all over.

Answer 8

Cyanide is rat poison...I don't think its "for" anything in cherry pits, it just occurs naturally.