but I was personally present on wedding in Moldovia, where father
of the bride dropped dead after tasting his wine.
Proud father expectantly tastes what he expects to be his wine
making masterpiece. Discovers itās really really bad wine. Bitter,
tannins, vinegar, etc. Completely undrinkable. In shock, he has a
heart attack or a stroke, and drops dead.
See? It doesnāt require cyanide. Besides, I rather expect that if
the wine had enough cyanide in it to kill from a mere taste, that it
would have been strong enough for the characteristic smell to be
present. Or maybe not. But keep in mind that a lethal dose of cyanide
is a much larger amount than some of the much more highly toxic
things one might think of. Modern nerve gases, some bacterial
poisons, some poison frog toxins, methyl mercury, etc. Some of these
things, the amount needed to kill you can be almost imperceptible
amounts. The amount of cyanide needed is well into the multiple
milligram range, not micro grams. The reason cyanide is so dangerous
is that in addition to itās toxicity, itās really fast acting, so you
often donāt have time to treat the poisoning. But a lethal dose
usually requires something on the order of 1.5 mg per kilo of body
weight, which equates to about the amount of a baby aspirin or so.
Thatās a rather substantial amount of chemical, especially if only in
a sip of wine. I find that a bit hard to believe as a trace
contaminant coming from included grape seeds in the original mashā¦
Oh, and on a related note, perhaps to Jim B., while cyanide is
indeed metabolized in low non-lethal doses, long term chronic
exposure to such low doses is NOT benign. Liver and nervous system
damage especially, as well as other health problems. Many body organs
can be affected to one degree or another with long term chronic low
dose exposure. It may not build up as cyanide stored in the body or
anything, but it can do damage over time. Not all MSDS documents
mention this in detail, since the risks of acute sudden poisoning are
so very much more extreme that most documents seem to focus on these
levels of exposure.
Back to wineā¦ Although Iām not a heavy drinker myself (lifelong
diabetes means I have to be moderate in such things, and budget
limits me to wines that donāt exactly set the world on fire), several
in my family were (past generations) or are (a brother) wine
connoisseurs. And Iāve never heard anyone other than you, Leonid, use
the word cyanide in talking about wines. Do you, perhaps, happen to
have any references on the web you could send us to that would
corroborate this danger? Though I didnāt spend a lot of time on
looking, Google didnāt immediately find such references when I
lookedā¦ At least not traditional grapes. There were stories about
potentially dangerous genetically modified grapes where genes
inserted gave the plant the potential to make insect resistant leaves
due to exuding hydrogen cyanide gas when attacked. (A property found
naturally in a number of other types of plant) But again, as near as
I could tell, this was leaves, not the fruit, though of course the
whole plant would be suspect, and Iād not want juice from it. But I
could find no historical references for wine contaminated by cyanide
through entirely natural processes, rather than human nefarious
actions. Do you know of any? Otherwise, Iām guessing āurban
legendāā¦
Oh, and just for fun, I put a bit of cyanide based silver plating
solution on a sheet of sterling silver. It didnāt turn black. Faint
reaction dulling the silver to a creamy grayish color, but not black.
Yeah, itās mostly silver cyanide, but also some free sodium or
potassium cyanide too. Not much reaction at all. My old silver
electroplating anodes arenāt black either. A bit discolored, but
after years of use or sitting around, what would ya expect.
Peter Rowe