Does apricot seeds consumption cause changes in human urine?

Abstract

Natural substances, such as amygdalin, used in alternative medicine gained high popularity. Common people as well as patients with different diseases have almost unlimited access to various natural supplements. To protect human health, it is very important to study effect of these substances. Amygdalin is a cyanogenic glucoside derived from seeds of rosaceous plants, for example seeds of bitter almonds (Prunus dulcis), or apricot, cherry, apple, peach, plum, etc. It is a natural product that owns antitumor activity, it has also been used for the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, leprosy and diabetes and produces a kind of antitussive and antiasthmatic effects. The present in vivo study was designed to reveal whether amygdalin in apricot seeds has got an effect on human urine composition, pH value and urine associated health status after six weeks of oral administration. The study group finally consisted of 34 healthy adult volunteers (21 females and 13 males). All participants were asked to consume 60 mg.kg -1 body weight of bitter apricot seeds daily (approximately 3.0 mg.kg -1 of amygdalin) during 6 weeks. During the experiment, three urine collections were carried out (first collection at the beginning of the experiment; second collectionafter 21 days; third collectionafter 42 days). Quantification of urine calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), sodium (Na), potassium (K), chlorides (Cl -), urea and pH value after apricot seeds supplementation was performed. Statistical analysis of variance showed, that consumption of bitter apricot seeds during 42 days had a significant (p <0.01) effect on amount of calcium excreted in urine, though this decrease shifted its level from elevated mean value in control collection into normal physiological range. Significant changes were observed in urea (p <0.05) and phosphorus (p <0.01) levels in urine after apricot seed ingestion, but gender was also considered to be a source of their variation.

Potential toxicity of cyanogenic glycoside amygdalin and bitter apricot seed in rabbits—Health status evaluation

“…In another study, we observed decrease in calcium in human urine after 84 days of apricot seeds consumption. The same study showed decreasing tendency in urine urea (Tušimová, Kováčik et al, ; Tušimová, Zbyňovská et al, ), similarly to present work. Urea level decrease may be caused by low‐protein intake but also by liver failure or severe hepatic insufficiency (Jenkins, ).…”

“…Results of our previous apricot seeds/amygdalin studies described variety of effects, for example, small weight loss in humans after daily consumption of bitter apricot seeds (Kopčeková et al, ), significant decreasing effect on total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels in humans after 12 weeks of consumption (Kopčeková et al, ), effect on mineral management of the human body (Tušimová, Kováčik et al, ; Tušimová, Zbyňovská et al, ), potential impact on steroidogenesis in porcine granulose cells in vitro (Halenár, Medveďová, Maruniaková, & Kolesárová, ), but no effect on endocrine regulators in vivo (Halenár et al, ) and a slight increase in renal parenchyma dystrophy of rabbits fed apricot seeds (Kolesárová et al, ).…”

“…Bitter apricot seeds ( Prunus armeniaca L.) (Country of origin—Syria) were provided by Trasco (Žiar n. Hronom, Slovak Republic). Thin‐Layer Chromatography (TLC) was performed for the analysis of amygdalin content in bitter apricot seeds used in our experiment (Tušimová, Kováčik et al, ). Other compounds of the seeds were analysed according to Galik, Biro, Juracek, Simko, and Gyongyova (), Galik et al (), and they are shown in Table A1 in Appendix 1.…”

Long‐term peroral administration of bitter apricot seeds influences cortical bone microstructure of rabbits

“…After consumption of apricot or bitter almond seeds, hydrogen cyanide can be produced in high enough level to pose a possible chronic toxicity problem (Miller et al, 1981;Tušimová et al, 2017). After consumption of apricot or bitter almond seeds, hydrogen cyanide can be produced in high enough level to pose a possible chronic toxicity problem (Miller et al, 1981;Tušimová et al, 2017).…”

“…Amygdalin can be applied perorally by raw bitter apricot seeds or tablet ingestion, or by intravenous injection. After consumption of apricot or bitter almond seeds, hydrogen cyanide can be produced in high enough level to pose a possible chronic toxicity problem (Miller et al, 1981;Tušimová et al, 2017). Moertel et al (1981) observed that different ways of amygdalin administration play an important role in organism.…”