What is hydrogen cyanide?

Equifer cyanogen is a chemical formed from hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. Its chemical formula is HCN. The chemicals used in mining and other industrial processes use the cyanide as a precursor, while the compound itself is used for fumigation. The most famous use of hydrogen cyanide is like poison; Commonly known simply as "cyanide" is highly poisonous either in a gaseous or liquid form, causing rapid death by inhibiting cellular breathing.

Chemist Carl Scheel isolated cyanogenic cyanide in 1782 while studying a blue dye known in the English -speaking world as a Prussian blue. After the name of the German name for the blue dye, he named the mixture discovered "Berlin Blausaure" or "Berlin Blue Acid". The fact that it was isolated from the Prussian blue led to the fact that the compound was known as "prussic acid" in English. Inhalation of cyanide gas can lead to death within ten minutes. It is inhibited by an enzyme called cytochrome C oxidase, which prevents cells from gaining energy. Many groupsIt put this poison as a weapon, either in the form of gas or liquid. For example, the Nazi regime used Zyklon B, a pesticide containing cyanide gas, to kill prisoners in extermination camps, while more than 900 followers of the cult leader Jim Jones used liquid cyanide to commit suicide in Guyana in 1978.

Assessment is a colorless liquid that emits a characteristic odor similar to bitter almonds. Only some people are able to identify this odor; The gene for the ability to detect it is missing in approximately 20 to 40 percent of the population. Chemicals are present in small quantities in a number of plants, especially fruits with stones, such as peaches and cherries, as well as in the roots of the Kasava plant. Long -term exposure to a small amount of cyanide can lead to persistent health profile; Scientists observed these effects in people whose diet contains a large amount of Cassava.

evaluateThe Geno Cyanide is a commonly used poison in a murderous mysterious fiction that plays an important role in the work of authors such as Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler. Murder using cyanide is in fact rare, but there are a number of familiar examples. For example, hydrogen cyanide could be one of the weapons used against the charismatic healer of the Russian belief Grigori Rasputin. The related compound, potassium cyanide, was used to poison the drugs in 1982 by Chicago Tylenol Murders.