Chad Gould wrote:
> On Wed, 18 May 2005 14:00:31 -0500, zxcvbob >
> wrote:
>
>>Malted sorghum? I thought that contained lethal amounts of cyanic
>>glucosides. The levels of cyanide might be reduced to safe levels during
>>fermentation (I don't know, this is the first time I've heard of using
>>malted sorghum to make beer), but the original poster is not planning to
>>ferment it but instead to make syrup. It could be extremely dangerous.
>
>
> Through Googling, I don't think this is a problem. I have found
> references that during malting, the cyanide-problem areas -- the new
> shoots -- are removed. This seems to solve most of the problem. As an
> example, per one set of scientists, HCN content is reduced by more
> than 90% just by removing the shoots. Fermentation furthermore reduces
> it by 70%. Since I don't have access to a bunch of university library
> scientific papers or time, I can't look up how much cyanide is reduced
> by additional malt kilning, or the one hour boil that you would
> normally do during brewing.
>
> Given that the cassava root, a plant that contains a bit more cyanide
> ppm when mature, is consumed just fine via simple techniques like
> toasting or fermentation, I'd speculate that the levels of cyanide one
> is talking about in sorghum beer are so minimal as to actually be a
> nutrient.
>


The original poster might not have known that sorghum sprouts are
poisonous. (notice how wide his crossposting net was cast)

BTW, about a month ago there was a news story about a bunch of kids who
died from HCN poisoning after eating improperly prepared fried cassava
chips that one of them brought to school for a snack -- purchased from a
street vendor, IIRC.

Best regards,
Bob