Hydrocyanic acid, also known as prussic acid, is a highly poisonous chemical used in mining, fumigation, and as a weapon. It inhibits cellular respiration and can cause death within minutes. It is present in some plants and is commonly used in murder mystery fiction.
Hydrocyanic acid is a chemical substance formed from hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. Its chemical formula is HCN. Chemicals used in mining and other industrial processes use hydrogen cyanide as a precursor, while the compound itself is used for fumigation. Hydrocyanic acid’s best known use is as a poison; commonly known simply as “cyanide”, it is highly poisonous in gaseous or liquid form, causing rapid death by inhibiting cellular respiration.
Chemist Carl Scheel isolated hydrogen cyanide in 1782 while studying the blue dye known in the English-speaking world as Prussian blue. He called the compound he had discovered “Berlin Blausaure” or “Berlin Blue acid” after the German name for the blue dye. The fact that it was isolated from Prussian blue has led to the compound being known as “prussic acid” in English.
Hydrocyanic acid is highly poisonous and can kill even in small concentrations. Inhaling cyanide gas can lead to death within ten minutes. The venom inhibits an enzyme called cytochrome c oxidase, preventing cells from gaining energy. A number of groups have weaponized this poison, in gaseous or liquid form. For example, the Nazi regime used Zyklon B, a pesticide containing cyanide gas, to kill prisoners in death camps, while more than 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones used liquid cyanide to commit suicide in Guyana in 1978.
Hydrocyanic acid is a colorless liquid which gives off a characteristic smell similar to bitter almonds. Only some humans are able to identify this smell; the gene for the ability to detect it is absent in about 20-40 percent of the population. The chemical is present in small amounts in a number of plants, particularly stone fruits such as peaches and cherries, as well as in the roots of the cassava plant. Long-term exposure to small amounts of cyanide can lead to lingering health problems; scientists have observed these effects in people whose diets contain a high amount of cassava.
Hydrogen cyanide is a commonly used poison in murder mystery fiction, playing an important role in the work of authors such as Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler. Cyanide homicide is actually rarer, but there are numerous known examples. For example, hydrogen cyanide may have been one of the weapons used against the charismatic Russian healer Grigori Rasputin. A related compound, potassium cyanide, was used to poison drugs in the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders.
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