In a skit in an episode of Burkiss Way, the detective smells cyanide and concludes that the victim must have been poisoned by bitter almonds. In homicide cases, detectives usually diagnose cyanide poisoning by the bitter almond smell emanating from the body.
Cyanide smells like almonds. This is because almonds contain small amounts of cyanide, and the cyanide lends its smell to them. People then misattribute the smell to almonds. The cyanide in of an almond is low in dose but it can become dangerous if almonds are eaten in great quantities.
Someone will smell the body and declare it smells like bitter almonds, which means the cause of death is cyanide poisoning. Anyone can do this, and even someone with no medical or law enforcement training can recognize the smell of bitter almonds as a sure sign of cyanide poisoning.
According to CDC.gov and Toxnet, bitter almonds contain cyanide, which gives them their characteristic odor, but this could also be due to benzaldehyde (PubChem), which is used as an almond flavoring in cooking, among other things (Wikipedia). Bitter almonds smell like cyanide because they contain cyanide, but sweet almonds smell mostly of benzaldehyde, which most people associate with the aroma of cherries.
The flavor extracts of almonds and cherries have a rather famously almost identical smell (mainly because almonds actually actually a close relative of cherries. Cyanide deters consumption with the bitter taste of benzaldehyde, which is also responsible for the classic smell of almonds. In its pure form, cyanide seems to smell like almonds – and this is logical, since the toxin occurs in the wild form of the nut.
Almonds Contain Small Volumes of Cyanide
Because you can swallow/inhale a small amount of it without dying (otherwise the almond will kill you because it contains hydrogen cyanide) and you can smell/taste the cyanide before it kills you. The dose is considered lethal after a dozen+, but luckily for us, only wild almonds have it, the ones we grow (considered sweet almonds) don’t have a noticeable amount. In small doses, cyanide in the body can be transformed into thiocyanate, which is less harmful and is excreted in the urine. In the body, small amounts of cyanide can also combine with another chemical to form vitamin B 12, which helps keep nerves and red blood cells healthy.
Certain chemicals are converted into cyanide in the body after ingestion, causing cyanide poisoning. How does this work? Cyanide poisoning depends on the amount of cyanide a person is exposed to, the route of exposure, and the length of exposure. For most people, cyanide only causes poisoning in the event of a fire or accidental ingestion of some of the above compounds. People may be exposed to low levels of cyanide in their daily lives through food, smoke and other sources.
People can be exposed to cyanide by breathing the air, drinking water, eating, or coming into contact with soil that contains cyanide. In the real world, hydrogen cyanide is generally undetectable at concentrations up to 600 ppm, a fairly high and dangerous concentrations. The general consensus is that hydrogen cyanide is odorless, but apparently no one has done dose-response experiments to test this claim. Hydrogen cyanide is a light blue or colorless liquid at room temperature and a colorless gas at higher temperatures.
Cyanide Gas Smells Like Almonds
Cyanide gas is sometimes described as having a “bitter almond” smell, but it doesn’t always smell and not everyone can detect it. Cyanide is found in cigarette smoke and in the combustion products of synthetic materials such as plastics. Compounds containing cyanide and cyanide are used in pesticides and fumigants, plastics, electroplating, photodevelopment, and mining. What is cyanide? Cyanide is a fast-acting and potentially lethal chemical that can exist in a variety of forms.
Potassium cyanide comes in the form of white granules or a crystalline solid, and in the 1982 Chicago Tylenol Murder, it blended perfectly with the consistency of a tablet. When ingested, a compound called amygdalin breaks down into several chemicals, including the bitter-tasting benzaldehyde and the deadly poison cyanide. When predators chew the seeds, an enzyme is released that breaks down almond nitrile into benzaldehyde and cyanide. All of these aromas are mainly due to a glycoside called amygdalin (from the Greek “Amygdalon”, “almond”), which is enzymatically dissociated from the aforementioned benzaldehyde in the broken seeds of plum fruits, including almonds. And hydrogen cyanide, oddly enough, smells very similar.
The Popular Awareness of Almond Toxicity
The almond tree is believed to have originated in Asia, and its seeds are very bitter due to its high content of amygdalin. Bitter almond trees still exist, and their few seeds can contain enough amygdalin to release potentially deadly cyanide. There are still trace amounts of toxic compounds in sweet almonds, but not enough to produce dangerous amounts of cyanide with reasonable measures.
He appeared in a Batman comic about Alfred’s days as a British agent; the poisoner made almond tarts to cover up the smell of cyanide. During the demonstration of the chemical, many noticed the strong smell of almonds, and con artist Louis Enricht often warned journalists that the chemical was poisonous. One interesting feature of this trope is that it amplifies itself; the same trope itself has excited public opinion in such a way that it becomes more and more likely that even the layman would recognize the meaning of the smell of bitter almonds if he were physically able to catch it.
If seeing a character he should know better conflate the smell of cyanide or bitter almonds with the smell of sweet almonds, almond extract, or “burnt almonds,” the author isn’t condescending to check the facts. At the beginning of the manga, when a murder occurs in a school play, Heiji points out other symptoms of cyanide poisoning, and eventually points out the smell of almonds, without even getting close to the corpse to smell it. “We can rule out cyanide poisoning,” the detective said, sniffing the mouth of a man who died mysteriously.
