Cyanide binds to ferric heme-proteins with a very high affinity, reflecting the very low dissociation rate constant (k(off)). Since no techniques are available to estimate k(off), we report herewith a method to determine k(off) based on the irreversible reductive nitrosylation reaction to trap ferric myoglobin (Mb(III)). The k(off) value for cyanide dissociation from ferric cyanide horse heart ...

Cyanide is the reagent of choice for gold and silver extraction, but also a toxic chemical that may cause severe environmental pollution problems. Vascular plants possess an enzyme system that detoxifies cyanide by converting it to the amino acid asparagine. The phytotoxicity of cyanide is indirectly connected to the efficiency of this enzyme system: Plants only survive cyanide exposure up to a...

Freshly harvested sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seeds are considered to be dormant because they fail to germinate at relatively low temperatures (10 degrees C). This dormancy results mainly from an embryo dormancy and disappears during dry storage. Although endogenous ethylene is known to be involved in sunflower seed alleviation of dormancy, little attention had been paid to the possible ro...

Soils on sites of former manufactured gas plants are usually contaminated with iron-cyanide complexes. We investigated the extraction of cyanide from 23 contaminated soils by three methods, which are prescribed by the German Federal Soil Protection Act and Ordinance: the soil-saturation extract with water, SSE, with a very narrow soil:solution ratio; the so-called S4 water extract with a soil:s...

Wastewater discharged from metal-finishing processes usually contains cyanide, a hazardous substance that is used extensively in the surface finishing industry. In the present study, a synthetic solution resembling the contaminated wastewater was chemically treated using ferrous sulfate. This simple one-step process was applied successfully to remove cyanide from metal finishing wastewater. The...

A survey has been made of the occurrence and distribution of three enzymes which metabolize cyanide in a variety of higher plants including both cyanogenic and non-cyanogenic species. The enzymes investigated were beta-cyanoalanine synthase, rhodanese and formamide hydrolyase. beta-Cyanoalanine synthase was found to be present in every higher plant tested whereas rhodanese was found to occur fa...

Cyanide is both widely available and easily accessible throughout the world. Although the compound is not frequently encountered, it has been used as a poison and contaminant in the past and is a potential terrorist agent. Cyanide has the ability to cause significant social disruption and demands special attention to public health preparedness. It can be obtained from a variety of sources, incl...

The present study analyses the potential of acid treated chitosan for simultaneous co-adsorptive removal of phenol and cyanide from a binary waste water solution. The effects of parameters like pH, temperature, initial concentration, adsorbent dose, and adsorbent size were studied. At an optimum pH of 8, temperature of 300C, initial phenol and cyanide concentration of 200 mg/L and 20 mg/L respe...

Three patients presented with painless bilateral visual failure due to tobacco amblyopia. The whole blood cyanide levels were raised above those predicted from their high tobacco consumption, approaching lethal levels reported from acute inhalation of cyanide. Each patient had an excessive alcohol intake with biochemical evidence of hepatic dysfunction, the elevated whole blood cyanide levels b...

Seed germination is the complex adaptive trait of higher plants influenced by a large number genes and environmental factors. Numerous studies have been performed to better understand how controlled various factors applied chemicals, such as cyanide. However, still very little known about molecular mechanisms extrinsic signals regulate seed germination. Our previous found that non-lethal cyanid...