How to turn apricot seeds into cyanide

[deleted-351403]

Hello, I'm doing a science project and wanted to know How to turn apricot seeds into cyanide to an experience, thank you.

[deleted-365447]

Hi Gabiarienne,

It would seem to me that the easiest way to extract amygdalin from the seed would be to use a "reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method*" using methanol—water (15:85, for 30 min and pure methanol after 30 min) as mobile phase is developed and a good result is obtained. Let me know if you have any questions.

Also, I would be sure to get an adult to help you when performing this experiment.

*http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/ques ... pple-seeds

[deleted-351403]

hello, I'm going to ask the help of a teacher, I want to test the effect of cyanide in fungi, can I just use the amygdalin and get results? I wanted to see the effect of cyanide and amygdalin only turns into cyanide in the human body
                 thank you

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

Do you still need help? This is an excellent and original topic for a science project.

Here are a couple of reference that describe methods for extracting and purifying amygdalin from plant samples. The first paper uses a non-polar resin called D101 to bind the amygdalin and ethanol to elute the sample. The second paper describes a procedure to extract the sample with methanol and water and purify it with the C18 silica:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 3214006795
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16176653

Please let us know if you have need any additional information.

Donna

[donnahardy2]

Hi,

I just saw your post about doing a project with no results. You need to check on the rules for your science fair, but many science fairs do require a controlled experiment. In some fairs, you can submit an engineering project, but this topic does not seem to fit into that category.

One of the challenges of doing a science fair project is to adapt the experiment to the materials that you have available and this can be challenging if you don't have access to a lab with specialized equipment and materials. It sounds like you have thought of a good topic for a project, but need to adapt it to something that you can actually do.

Please let me know what you want to do and let me know what materials and lab equipment you have, and I'll try to suggest a suitable experiment. For a science project, you just need to do one carefully controlled experiment and measure your results.

Donna