The total cyanogenic potential of various substrates (flax seed, stones of peach, plum, nectarine and apricot as well as apple seeds, and various model compounds) was investigated by using the acid hydrolysis method, picrate method, and a novel method based on the reaction of cyanide liberated from plants with resorcinol and picrate. The hydrocyanic acid liberated from cyanogens was trapped by using a 1% sodium bicarbonate. Then, 1 ml of extract was mixed with 1 ml of working reagent containing 160 microg of resorcinol, 320 microg of picric acid, and 30 mg of sodium carbonate, and heated on a boiling water bath for 10 min. The absorbance was measured at 488 nm in 1cm glass cuvettes at room temperature. The color system obeys Beer's law in the range of 0-5 microg ml(-1) total HCN. Using model compounds and real samples including replicate analyses on prunasin, the resorcinol method proved to be more accurate, reproducible, and especially more sensitive than the known spectrophotometric methods such as the acid hydrolysis method and the picrate method.