From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: Lycopene sources (foods)
Date: 11 Aug 1998 04:38:28 GMT

In <35CF3840.11BE@netcom.ca> "Michael H." <zoltron@netcom.ca> writes:

>Thanks for the info, Cindy.(I just happen to have a red cabbage in the
>fridge, and will have to try that. Sounds like a real "litmus test".)
>Incidentally, are the anthocyanins especially good for you? The
>"cyani-"part of it sounds like"cyanide".I realize that a stand-alone
>molecule (e.g. cyanide) can have very different properties than a
>larger molecule that contains the smaller molecule as a component, but
>still, one does wonder.


Comment:

   Have no fear in that regard.  Anthocyanins don't even contain
cyanide as a part of the molecule.  Cyanide (CN-) is named because it
was first isolated as an anion (by Scheele, I think) from a compound
called ferric ferrocyanide, which had been used by chemists as a dye,
and is a lovely blue.  Kyanos is simply the Greek word for dark blue
(when a doctor says a patient is "cyanotic," what is meant is that the
patient is blue, not that he's cyanide poisoned).  Anthocyanins are
simply named for their color (they give the color to blueberries and
delphiniums).

                                      Steve Harris, M.D.