ABSTRACT
Cyanide is one of the oldest toxins known (1). In ancient Egyptian documents, administering cyanogenic peach ker nel preparations is mentioned as a form of execution. Ancient Greeks and Romans used a cherry laurel distillate for suicides, murders, and judicial executions (2). In 1782, hydrogen cyanide liquid was isolated by the chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele through the action of sulfuric acid on Prussian blue, from which the name prussic acid for hydrocyanic acid derives. Scheele died 4 years after his discovery from inhaling hydrogen cyanide gas when he accidentally broke a beaker of the deadly acid (3).
