Vitamin B-17 (nitriloside, amygdaline) is a designation proposed to include a large group of water-soluble, essentially non-toxic, sugary, compounds found in over 800 plants, many of which are edible. These factors are collectively known as Beta-cyanophoric glycosides. They comprise molecules made of sugar, hydrogen cyanide, a benzene ring or an acetone. Though the intact molecule is for all practical purposes completely non-toxic, it may be hydrolyzed by Beta-glycosidase to a sugar, free hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde or acetone.

The diet of primitive man and most fruit-eating animals was very rich in nitrilosides. They regularly ate the seeds (and kernels) of all fruits, since these seeds are rich in protein, polyunsaturated fats, and other nutrients. Seeds also contain as much as 2 per cent or more nitriloside. There are scores of other major foods naturally, or normally, very rich in nitriloside. It is one of the main courses of food in cultures such as the Navajo Indians, the Hunzas the Abkhasians and many more. It has been said that within these tribes there has never been a reported case of cancer.

One of the most common nitrilosides is amygdalin. This nitriloside occurs in the kernels of seeds of practically all fruits. The presence of nitriloside in the diet produces specific physiologic effects and leaves as metabolites specific chemical compounds of a physiologically active nature. The production by a non-toxic, water-soluble accessory food factor of specific physiological effects as well as identifiable metabolites suggests the vitamin nature of the compound.

In metabolism, nitriloside is hydrolyzed to free hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde or acetone and sugar. This occurs largely through the enzyme Beta-glucosidase produced by intestinal bacteria as well as by the body. The released HCN [hydrocyanide] is detoxified by the enzyme rhodanese to the relatively non-toxic thiocyanate molecule. The sugar is normally metabolized. The released benzaldehyde in the presence of oxygen is immediately oxidized to benzoic acid which is non-toxic. Thus this newly designated vitamin B-17 (nitriloside) could account for:

1. The thiocyanates in the body fluids--blood, urine, saliva, sweat, and tears; 
2. For part of the benzoic acid (and subsequently hippuric acid); salicylic acid isomers; 
3. For the HCN that goes to the production of cyanocobalamin from hydrocobalamin, or production of vitamin B₁₂ from provitamin B₁₂. 

These are the physiological properties of the common nitriloside amygdalin. Before considering the possible antineoplastic activity of this vitamin B-17, let us recall that the benzoic acid arising from it has certain antirheumatic and antiseptic properties. It was rather widely used (in Germany and elsewhere) for rheumatic disease therapy prior to the advent of the ortho-hydroxy addition product of benzoic acid known as ortho-hydroxybenzoic acid or salicylic acid. It was originally obtained from beech-wood bark. As a matter of interest, the para- hydroxy isomer of benzoic acid occurs in the para hydroxybenzaldehyde aglycon (non-sugar) of the nitriloside found in the cereal millet. Millet was once more widely used in human nutrition than wheat. Wheat seed contains little or no nitriloside. 

Symptoms of Deficiency or Need:
It is very probable that rheumatic diseases, hypertension and cancer are related to a dietary deficiency in nitrilosides.

The ingestion of a sufficient quantity of nitriloside-containing foods will metabolically yield sufficient benzoic acid and/or salicylic acid isomers to palliate rheumatic disease and certainly to decrease, however temporarily, hypertension as well as to foster the nitrilosation of provitamin B-12 to active vitamin B-12: cyanocobalamin. 

Apricot kernels are known to prevent and cure cancer, even though the medical establishment has worked night and day and even lied to suppress it. Ralph Moss left the Sloan-Kettering Institute when they refused to publish their findings on Laetrile. It didn’t work on all cancers, but it had stopped metastases 100% of the time. 

Natural Sources
Apricot Kernels are the richest source of B17 (Laetrile). Vitamin B17 is found in most all fruit seeds such as the apple, peach, cherry, orange, plums, nectarine and apricot, often in the extraordinary concentration of 2 to 3 percent. It is found in some beans and many grasses such as wheat grass. Other foods that contain vitamin B-17 are: bitter almonds, millet, lima beans and more. (The bitter almond tree was banned from the U.S. in 1995.) 

"Vitamin B-17 (nitriloside) is also found in great abundance in a very wide variety of vegetable foods once eaten in great abundance by man, and the natural fodder of animals is similarly rich in the factor. In a paper which I hope to publish soon, I have listed over 62 plant foods eaten by man and over 70 common fodder plants that are very rich in vitamin B-17 (nitriloside). Their concentration of this vitamin compares favorably with that of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) so far as quantity and ubiquity are concerned. As in the case of many other vegetables, sprouts may contain 10 to 30 times as much vitamin B-17 as mature plants. It is not practicable to furnish here the several hundred references of the basic research on nitrilosides nor to list extensive tables showing the occurrence of this new vitamin in a wide range of foods. It would not be germane to explain the reasons why and how "modern diet" has been almost totally stripped of nitrilosides. Suffice it to say that the factors that made commercial white bread lethal to rats and gave the world the empty calories of refined white sugar also have served to produce a fulminating deficiency in vitamin B-17 (nitriloside) in the diet of so called civilized man." -- Ernest Krebs

Suggested Dosage:
We don't need to make the seed a main course but we do need the equivalent of about seven apricots seeds per day to nearly guarantee a cancer free life. 

References
Article: Laetrile - Vitamin B17

Related Sites
Ernst Krebs discussion of  The Nature of Cancer
Ernst Krebs discussion of the Trophoblast Theory of Cancer
Ernst Krebs discussion of  Trophoblasts and Morning Sickness
Ernst Krebs discussion of the Metabolism of nitrilosides (Vitamin B17)
Charles Gurchot's explanation of  How Vitamin B17 Works