I'm interested in plants and a number of them contain 'cyanogenic glucosinolates' that break down to form cyanides. Some of them even contain hydrogen cyanide in a raw state.

 

I was curious to know if there was a way to process the plant material to remove the cyanide content.

 

One is to bake the mushed up plants, but that doesn't do a lot for the actual plant material you want left.

 

Is there a chemical method for moping up and making safe the cyanide radicals?

Hmmm, I found an interesting idea about this just now...

 

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5217623.html

 

The patent just added xylose sugar to the material. The half-life of the cyanide at 25 degrees Celsius is only 1 minute! Pretty impressive.

 

Apparently any aldose sugar will work.

 

Aldose sugars have an aldehyde group on them. When you mix the Xylose with the cyanide, you get none toxic acidic sugar. So I guess the cyanide radical is oxidising the aldehyde to an acid and the nitrogen comes away as gas?

 

Did I say I'm impressed?

conversion to CyanATE, is often the best way.

Hydrolysis is cheap but slow.