Which apricot seeds/kernels are safe to eat?

I ask because week and half ago I watched some alternative cancer treatement videos on youtube, and I remember seeing in one of them information about many apricot seeds that are sold on the internet being dangerous (especially those which have writtem "Raw/bitter apricod seeds" on the bag), because they are injected with some chemical that causes cancer.
I bought Apricot seeds from Syria from one of our countries website. It does not say RAW apricot seeds, just apricot seeds, also with website 17b17.com.
Are they safe to eat? If not, where can I buy some apricot seeds that can be shipped into Europe and are safe to eat?
Thanks.

reply to post by Farnhold


You'll need the bitter ones for cancer treatment.
The others won't work. As far as I know.

The german goverment f.e. says, it's only safe to eat 2 bitter apricot seeds a day.
But I've eat at least 10-15 a day for several weeks, without any problems.



If you interested, read into Amygdalin/Leatril/Vitamin B17
In 2007 a german court decided, that clean/pharmaceutical amygdalin is safe, because it don't split up in hydrogen cyanide.

Originally posted by grobi77
reply to post by Farnhold

 

You'll need the bitter ones for cancer treatment.
The others won't work. As far as I know.

The german goverment f.e. says, it's only safe to eat 2 bitter apricot seeds a day.
But I've eat at least 10-15 a day for several weeks, without any problems.

edit on 2.3.2012 by grobi77 because: (no reason given)

thanks mate . The ones I eat are very bitter, I also wash them before I eat them.
2 are very little, I read that it is recommended to eat at least 8-10 a day, people in Kingdom of Hunza eat around 30-35 if I am correct,and they are very healthy and have long life (never had cancer).

According to The Straight Dope....

You've got good reason to be afraid, pal. Fruits of the rose family--including cherries, apples, plums, almonds, peaches, apricots, and crabapples--contain in their seeds substances known as cyanogenetic glycosides, which on ingestion release hydrogen cyanide gas through an enzymatic reaction. They can most certainly do you in. Since 1957, Turkey--a big apricot country--has reported nine cases of lethal poisoning from apricot seeds. Unfortunately, victims of such poisonings have a habit of kicking the bucket before doctors have a chance to ask them how many seeds they've eaten; in addition, the amount of amygdalin--the most important cyanogenetic glycoside--varies from species to species, and since the poisoning does not involve a direct transfer of cyanide from one place to another, "lethal dosages" of these various seeds are hard to pin down

Use the following as guidelines: (1) bitter almonds contain by far the greatest amount of amygdalin, and it takes 50-70 of them to kill an adult, 7-10 to kill a child. (2) Ingestion of about a cupful of any of the above seeds is pushing things a bit.

From what I have read at multiple sites, sweet apricot seeds do not contain cyanogenetic glycosides, and are safe to eat.

reply to post by butcherguy


So, in 55 years, 9 people have died? That is 0.1636363636 persons per year. More people die of water intoxication than that.

I've been eating apricot kernels now for 2 weeks, between 5 and 10 a day with no ill effects.