The kernels contain amygdalin, which contains cyanide.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sweet Apricot Kernels, reviewed | Baking Bites] Reference

Bitter apricot kernels naturally contain a compound called amygdalin, which has the potential to release cyanide when the kernels are ingested.    From Wordnik.com.  [CTV News RSS Feed] Reference

The toxin called amygdalin that is found in almond tree nectar is in fact an evolutionary development intended to give that tree an advantage over others in its surroundings.    From Wordnik.com.  [THE MEDICAL NEWS] Reference

A group of researchers at the Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of University of Haifa-Oranim speculate that the toxin called amygdalin that is found in almond tree nectar is in fact an evolutionary.    From Wordnik.com.  [WN.com - Articles related to Are Bees Addicted To Caffeine And Nicotine?] Reference

A group of researchers at the Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Science Education at the University of Haifa-Oranim speculate that the toxin called amygdalin that is found in almond tree nectar is in fact an evolutionary development intended to give that tree an advantage over others in its surroundings.    From Wordnik.com.  [RedOrbit News - Technology] Reference

Bitter almonds contain two substances: amygdalin which is harmless and emulsin which is harmless too.    From Wordnik.com.  [Charles Richet - Nobel Lecture] Reference

Animal subjects survive an injection of either amygdalin or emulsin.    From Wordnik.com.  [Charles Richet - Nobel Lecture] Reference

Yet injected separately, neither the amygdalin nor the emulsin has any effect.    From Wordnik.com.  [Charles Richet - Nobel Lecture] Reference

Mitscherlich, more especially, have shown that yeast imparts to water a soluble material, which liquefies cane-sugar and produces inversion in it by causing it to take up the elements of water, just as diastase behaves to starch or emulsin to amygdalin.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology)] Reference

A clinical trial of amygdalin was carried out in 1982 by the Mayo Clinic and three other US cancer centers under National Cancer Institute sponsorship, and found that, “No substantive benefit was observed in terms of cure …” and more than 2 of the 178 patients suffered from cyanide toxicity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Sweet Apricot Kernels, reviewed | Baking Bites] Reference

One of those who ascertained new, relevant facts was, surprisingly, Liebig himself who in a masterly study, carried out jointly with Wöhler, on the decomposition of amygdalin into oil of bitter almonds and sugar by an apparently protein-like substance occurring in almonds which they termed emulsin, established a typical case of a very extensive series of catalytic phenomena, i.e. enzyme actions.    From Wordnik.com.  [Wilhelm Ostwald - Nobel Lecture] Reference

Previous studies have already shown that amygdalin can be found in almond nectar at a concentration of 4-10 mg per liter.    From Wordnik.com.  [Daily News & Analysis] Reference

Laetrile (i.e. amygdalin or Vitamin B17) therapy is one of the most popular and best known alternative cancer treatments.    From Wordnik.com.  [WordPress.com News] Reference

In both cases and for each of the compositions, the bees preferred nectar containing amygdalin over the amygdalin-free option.    From Wordnik.com.  [Newswise: Latest News] Reference

Previous studies have already shown that amygdalin can be found in almond nectar at a concentration of 4-10 milligrams per liter.    From Wordnik.com.  [Newswise: Latest News] Reference

The team first monitored four different amygdalin concentrations, resembling the natural levels of the toxin in almond tree nectar.    From Wordnik.com.  [Newswise: Latest News] Reference

For example, even though amygdalin is poisonous for mammals, it is not poisonous for insects, such as the honey bee, and it even produces a stimulant that attracts such insects.    From Wordnik.com.  [Newswise: Latest News] Reference

OTTAWA -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume Our Father's Farm brand Ultra Bitter Apricot Kernels in excessive amounts because the product contains a natural toxin called amygdalin.    From Wordnik.com.  [CTV News RSS Feed] Reference

They explain that the presence of amygdalin in the nectar is seemingly incompatible with the nectar's purpose of attracting insects to the flower to extract food and pollinate it and thereby contribute to the plant's reproduction.    From Wordnik.com.  [Newswise: Latest News] Reference

"It is difficult - and sometimes impossible - to determine the workings of evolution, but it is likely that amygdalin is produced in the almond nectar so as to give the almond tree an advantage in reproduction," said Prof. Izhaki.    From Wordnik.com.  [Daily News & Analysis] Reference

They explained that the presence of amygdalin in the nectar is seemingly incompatible with the nectar's purpose of attracting insects to the flower to extract food and pollinate it and thereby contribute to the plant's reproduction.    From Wordnik.com.  [Daily News & Analysis] Reference

Doebereiner and Mitscherlich, more especially, have shown that yeast imparts to water a soluble material, which liquefies cane-sugar and produces inversion in it by causing it to take up the elements of water, just as diastase behaves to starch or emulsin to amygdalin.    From Wordnik.com.  [VI. The Physiological Theory of Fermentation. Reply to the Critical Observations of Liebig, Published in 1870] Reference

The reason for moistening the cake is well understood to the practical chemist, and although we are not treating the subject of perfumery in a chemical sense, but only in a practical way, it may not be inappropriate here to observe, that the essential oil of almonds does not exist ready formed to any extent in the nut, but that it is produced by a species of fermentation, from the amygdalin and emulsine contained in the almonds, together with the water that is added.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Art of Perfumery And Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants] Reference

"It is possible that the only correlation between the physiological act and the phenomenon of fermentation is the production, in the living cell, of the substance which, by some special property analogous to that by which emulsin exerts a decomposing action on salicin and amygdalin, may bring about the decomposition of sugar into other organic molecules; the physiological act, in this view, would be necessary for the production of this substance, but would have nothing else to do with the fermentation (page 10).".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology)] Reference

“It is possible that the only correlation between the physiological act and the phenomenon of fermentation is the production, in the living cell, of the substance which, by some special property analogous to that by which emulsin exerts a decomposing action on salicin and amygdalin, may bring about the decomposition of sugar into other organic molecules; the physiological act, in this view, would be necessary for the production of this substance, but would have nothing else to do with the fermentation (page 10).    From Wordnik.com.  [VI. The Physiological Theory of Fermentation. Reply to the Critical Observations of Liebig, Published in 1870] Reference

Based on our observations, we can make a guess at which mechanisms come into play for amygdalin to provide this advantage, "Prof. Izhaki explains.    From Wordnik.com.  [RedOrbit News - Technology] Reference

"It is difficult - and sometimes impossible - to determine the workings of evolution, but it is likely that amygdalin is produced in the almond nectar so as to give the almond tree an advantage in reproduction.    From Wordnik.com.  [Newswise: Latest News] Reference