Fact check: Apple seeds do contain cyanide, but not enough to kill - USA TODAY

The claim: Apple seeds contain cyanide, and eating 20 apple cores will kill an adult

An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But one viral claim suggests that eating too many apples might send you to the doctor – or worse, the morgue.

"Apple seeds contain cyanide," a post by Facebook page "Facts that will blow your mind" reads. "Eating 20 apple cores will kill an adult, while eating less can result in paralysis, coma and brain damage."

The post was shared more than 5,000 times, though commenters were quick to question the post's veracity.

"I always eat my apples with the seeds, nothing has ever happened to me. I used to eat close to 5 apples a day..." one commenter wrote.

"I had a cousin, an old country doctor, who recommended eating an apple day, including the core and the seeds. He died just prior to turning 100," another wrote.

The Facebook page "Facts that will blow your mind" did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

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Apple seeds do contain cyanide, but not enough to kill

Apple seeds contain a cyanide- and sugar-based compound called amygdalin. The seeds have a strong outer layer that is resistant to digestive juices. But if you chew the seeds, human (or animal) enzymes come in contact with the amygdalin, cutting off the sugar part of the molecule, The Guardian reported. What's left of the compound can then decompose, producing hydrogen cyanide.

Cyanide itself is a rapidly acting, potentially deadly chemical that kills by preventing cells in the body from using oxygen, according to the CDC. The chemical is a favorite silent killer of mystery novelists like Agatha Christie, but has also been used egregiously in real life, perhaps most infamously as the gas in Holocaust gas chambers.

Exposure to a large amount can lead to symptoms including convulsions, slow heart rate and respiratory failure leading to death, and exposure to a small amount might cause dizziness, nausea and weakness, among other things, the CDC says.

In humans, cyanide toxicity is experienced at doses of around 0.5-3.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, The Guardian reported.

The average apple usually contains between five to eight seeds. Apple seeds contain approximately 1-4 milligrams of amygdalin, a 2014 study found, but not all of that translates into cyanide.

Plus, the human body can process hydrogen cyanide in small doses, so eating a few seeds is not dangerous. In fact, it would take "anywhere from 150 to several thousand crushed seeds" to cause cyanide poisoning, according to Britannica.

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Our rating: Missing context

The claim that apple seeds contain cyanide and eating 20 apple cores will kill an adult is MISSING CONTEXT, because key information was missing from the post. It's true that apple seeds contain cyanide in the form of the compound amygdalin. But one would have to consume between 150 and several thousand apple seeds — and they would need to be crushed — to cause cyanide poisoning, and possibly death.

Our fact-check sources:

• Healthline, May 20, 2015, Are Apple Seeds Poisonous?
• The Guardian, Oct. 11, 2015, Cyanide in fruit seeds: how dangerous is an apple?
• Center for Disease Control, Facts About Cyanide
• Hindustan Times, Nov. 2, 2019, The fatal dose: Poison in Agatha Christie's works
• ThoughtCo., Jan. 24, 2020, Zyklon B, a Poison Used During the Holocaust
• ScienceDirect, March 1, 2015, Determination of amygdalin in apple seeds, fresh apples and processed apple juices
• PubChem, Aug. 8, 2020, Hydrogen cyanide
• Britannica, Can Apple Seeds Kill You?

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Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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