Life is Full with Chemistry

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Nicotine

This topic came into my mind when I walking along the street and I saw some smoker with several packs of cigarette with them. When I passed by them, the smoke from the cigarette was blown by the wind to my face. Inhaling that smoke made me a passive smoker which was really uncomfortable. In that moment, I had difficulty to breathe and cause me to feel so unease and irritated. I was wondering why are there so many smoker around when our health ministry already implemented increase of price of cigarette and even have a lot of advertisement regarding the harm of nicotine to human body all around the billboard and multimedia, even on the cigarette box itself there are picture of human part which damage by the result of active smoker.

I really don’t understand what’s wrong with these guys. Why don’t they spend that money in helping those in need than harming themselves and others? What a waste of money and time. If they want to boast due to stress why not take in some coffee or chocolate?

I’m curious to know what so big deal a saying from those smokers, “A cigarette a minute keeps me awake and active”. Lame!!

Nicotine was first discovered by a French scientist, Vauquelin in 1809.He noticed a volatile and alkaline active product in the tobacco juice. In 1828, Poselt and Reimann from Heidelberg’s University performed isolation and purification of nicotine .Nicotine was named upon Jean Nicot (the first person who imported tobacco in France from “Occidental India” in 1560).

In 1843, Melsen established the empiric formula of nicotine as C10H14N2, while in 1843 Schloesing determined nicotine weight at 16223 g.mol-1. In 1895, the structure of nicotine was obtained and developed by Adolf Pinner.

Nicotine is an alkaloid found in Solanum family of Solanacea which consist of 0.6-3.0% of dry mass of tobacco or from dried leaves and stems of Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica of concentration of 0.5-8%.Nicotine is a liquid alkaloid which have a ph of 8.5 with a bitter-tasting which strongly alkaline. Nicotine was named under IUPAC as 3-[(2S)-1-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl] pyridine.

I really would like to remind those smokers out there, please don’t smoke. You are not only causing health problem to others and your family but also causing global warming! I hate you guys! Here the effect of dosing nicotine. Hope u will wake for God’s sake.

Nicotine poisoning may develop within just 15minutes!! The onset of the symptoms is so drastic which it happen right after the ingestion of liquid nicotine. Death may just occur within 5 minutes of ingestion of concentrate nicotine solution. Just 4-8 milligrams of nicotine can cause serious symptoms in individuals’ health. When it start kicking in, you will feel your mouth and throat burning following by profuse salivation, vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea. On top of that, it could causes dizziness, confusion, hypertension and coma. Finally respiratory organs or system will be paralysis and would cause death. (Still want to take in nicotine??)

Passive smokers this part is for you (including myself)

When acute exposure to nicotine would causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting even just dosing a low concentration of nicotine. (That’s why I’m experiencing when with smokers around). Even skin exposure to nicotine can lead to intoxication.

When a smoker has a cigarette, each puff of it pulls nicotine into his/her lungs where it absorbed into the blood. Just within second, nicotine reached the brain. This process happen so drastic is due to the shape of the nicotine has a similar shape with acetylcholine. (Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that carry message in brain cell.). Nicotine inhibits acetylcholine receptor causes changes in stimulation of nerve. Nicotine raises the heart beat and respiration rate which causes blood sugar to increase lead to gradually boast in attention/alert of the smokers. (This is always the excuses which smokers use to omit their deed.) Imagine one day without acetylcholine in your older age, you will have depression all the time, then u will regret smoking during your young age.

Nicotine can also attaches to neurons and releases neurotransmitter, dopamine. Nicotine stimulate neurons to release large amount of dopamine which stimulate brain’s pleasure and reward limbic system(including feeling of pleasure, memory, appetite and learning).After stimulation, dopamine remain in synapses which reduces the transition of nerve.

These changes in brain and body cause nicotine highly addictive. (Never start having it!)

For those women that are currently pregnant, you are not advisable to consume nicotine in any form of way. It’s very harmful for the baby. Why is that so?

Exposure to nicotine will decrease breathing movements which will cause decrease of placental perfusion. On top of that, nicotine passes freely into mammal gland into breast milk at a small quantity; therefore consumption of milk by infant could cause nausea and vomiting.

Lastly, I really hope those that are consuming nicotine will stop it before too late and for those that want to try it for fun I recommend u not to. It’s a very addictive drug!

So as a last WARNING ! Don’t smoke! Start to remove those addiction away while your health isn’t completely overthrown by the damage of NICOTINE.

~Jasonyap~

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Aspirin

Lately one of my posting was out of topic, I’m very stress due to too many work on hand to work on and have some family matter to care of. Eventually the consumption of aspirin increases in my daily life. I’m a person which could get sick easily even standing under the hot sunny afternoon will give me a bad headache. Just the few days I had been consuming a lot of aspirin. Then this idea comes into my mind to write about it and get to know about it more and the side effect.

Let get to know what is aspirin and its history.

I’ll make it a short one; I’m having some depression when doing this posting.
During the ancient time, salicylic-rich willow bark extract was known to relieve fever, inflammation and muscle and joint aches. Hippocrates (father of modern medicine during 460 B.C and 377 B.C) left historical records of usage of powder made from leaves and bark of willow tree help to heal headaches and pains. During the 19th century, pharmacists start to research and experiment variety of chemicals related to salicylic acid (a component of willow extract).

During 1829, scientists discovered the actual compound which relief pain was salicin. Henri Leroux was able extracted salicin in crystalline form for the first time and Raffaele Piria succeeded obtaining pure state of salicylic acid. When salicylic acid was tested, the effect was negative; therefore a buffering compound was researched. In 1853, Charles Frederic Gerhardt was able to neutralized salicylic acid by buffering with acetyl chloride and sodium which created acetylsalicylic acid.

In 1899, Felix Hoffmann rediscovered Gerhardt’s formula and made acetylsalicylic acid a less-irritating replacement for standard common salicylate medicines. Felix Hoffmann was working under a German company called Bayer. Bayer came up with the name Aspirin which comes from the “a” in acetyl chloride, the “spir” in spiraea ulmaria (plant which derived salicylic acid) and “in” was a familiar ending name for medicines. Aspirin was sold in powder form but in 1915 Aspirin tablets were made.

How interesting Aspirin was made from a plant. So it should be a healthy product I guess. Let me get deeper into its chemistry.

Aspirin or also known as acetylsalicylic acid, which is a salicylate drug which use as analgesic(painkiller) to relieve minor pain and aches, also as antipyretic(drug reduce body temperature) to reduce fever and reduce inflammation ( a complex response of vascular tissue to harmful stimuli.)

How modern aspirin is made?? It is through an esterification reaction where salicylic acid is treated with acetic anhydride cause the phenol group of salicylic acid to change into acetyl group (R-OH -> R- OCOCH3),

and small amount of sulfuric acid is added as catalyst. Aspirin is name as 2-acetoxybenzoic acid under IUPAC.

Hmmm... This posting seem getting abit longer than I expected. This topic gave me some driving power to write more and research more on it. So let get to the point which everyone should know before and after taking aspirin and effect of it.

I found out some important information I would like to let you know about it (especially to new parent) XD. Aspirin should never be given to children, especially when the child having chicken pox or flu symptoms BECAUSE aspirin could cause a fatal condition called as Reye’s syndrome in children.(Reye’s syndrome is a fatal disease that cause detrimental effect on brain and liver which causes inflammation and severe encephalopathy [brain swelling].)(Be careful on that!!). One more reminder to those alcoholic, don ever consume aspirin after drinking alcohol, it could increase the risk of stomach bleeding.

Do you know if you have certain disorder you couldn’t consume aspirin? Want to know which disorder is that?

If you have: bleeding disorder (i.e. hemophilia), stomach or intestinal bleeding, asthma, liver disease, kidney disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, gout and nasal polyps. You couldn’t consume aspirin which will cause a lot of side effect and internal injuries. So do be careful when consuming.

Those are the precaution you should know before consume aspirin. How about overdosing of aspirin? (I think I’m a real life specimen now) ha ha. .

Overdosing of aspirin could causes double vision and uncontrollable shaking seizures of muscle. It could also cause drowsiness and causes our body to feel restless which would affect our consciousness and nervousness. On top of that it would lead to vomiting due to stomach disorder and causes burning throat. Indirectly would decrease urination. (Those didn’t happen on me. Conclude that, I didn’t overdose of aspirin! SAFE!)

I just found out something interesting about aspirin.

1) Able to keep flowers remain fresh for a longer period of time. How? Drop a soluble aspirin tablet into the water before putting the flower into the vase.

2) Could prevent fungus forming around roots of new plants. How? Mixing aspirin into potting composition when doing gardening.

3) Treat dandruff problem. How? Mixing 2 tablet of aspirin into the shampoo.

4) Aids for pimples. How? Crush the aspirin tablet and add some water to make it into paste form and cover it on the pimple.

5) Removing stain. How? Add 2 aspirins in half-filled warm water and apply on the stain and wash the cloth after several hours.

~Jasonyap~

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Barley (off-topic) XD

Barley is one of the common cooling remedy among the locals and it is one of my favorite drink. I love having a few glasses of it when the weather is hot and dry. I even make it when I’m free during the weekend. It such a nice beverages which I never miss having it in any days of a week. Besides that, does anyone know about what make barley so special and could give such a great cooling ability to our human body?? Does u know how barley came about??

Let me tell u more about it

Barley existed 17000BCE ago and it was found in Epipaleolithic at Ohala II at southern end of the Sea of Galilee, Israel (largest freshwater lake in Israel). (Surprisingly barley is found in such a large freshwater lake).

Barley was one of the first crops domesticated in the East. During the Neolithic age, barley beer was developed and later was used as currency due to its demands.

In ancient Egypt, barley was used to make bread and beer. On top of that, in ancient Greece, barley was used to prepare ritual drink call as “Barley-mother” and soon converted to malt which fermented to alcoholic beverages. Even in Roman, barley was a special meal for gladiators known as hordearii “barley-eaters”

From the history of barley, I come to understand about the usage of it during the ancient civilizations as a food for humans and animals, as well as alcoholic beverages. On top of that, barley water has been used for various medicinal purposes since ancient times.

Barley comes in various different forms nowadays. Here are the types of barley you could find

Hulled barley / Dehulled Barley
Barleys in its hulled form contains most nutrient require a lot of time to soak when used.

Pearl Barley
Barley undergo pearling process in which removing the outermost hull, the grain’s bran layer and its inner endosperm layer. Pearl barley contain least nutrient compare to hulled barley and less chewy.

Pot/Scotch Barley
Barley been polished which remove its outer hull and leaving large amount of the grain remain intact. It has denser of nutrient than pearl barley and mainly use in soup production.

Barley Flakes
Barley has been flattened and sliced into rolled oat shape. Barley flakes can be made either from hulled, hulless or pearl barley which differ in the nutrient content depending on the source of barley used.

Barley Grits
Barley has been cracked and toasted which can be made either from hulled, hulless or pearl barley which has significantly different in nutrient content.

You must be curious wondering what the chemistry behind this grain after the long introduction of it.
Sorry to make it so long but this topic interest me a lot as it my favorite grain after all!! XD

Let get into health benefit, I will make it quick.

Barley consist of high fiber which could give intestinal health a boost by providing bulk and decreasing the transit time of fecal matter, therefore decrease the risk of colon cancer and hemorrhoids. On top of that barley provides food for “good” bacteria in large intestine which allow them to produce butyric acid which act as primary fuel for cells of large intestine and maintain healthy colon.

Barley’s insoluble fiber also produced propionic acid which has cholesterol-lowering properties which help lowering blood cholesterol levels. Additional of that, barley is high in beta glucan, which lower cholesterol by binding to bile acid and removed via feces. (This is very beneficial for people which have heart disease since it forces the body to make more bile by breaking down cholesterol.) (Interesting point right? He he ^-^)

Barley is a good source of niacin, a type of B vitamin that provides numerous protective actions against cardiovascular risk. Niacin reduces total cholesterol and lipoprotein-α level. Lipoprotein-α composed of protein and fat that found in blood plasma which similar to LDL cholesterol but more dangerous as it could attach to blood vessel walls. Niacin help prevent oxidizing of LDL which harmful to blood vessel. On top of that, niacin help reduce clotting of blood platelets which will causes formation of blood clots. Conclude that, barley give additional protection against atherosclerosis. (Isn't it good consuming barley?)

Do you know that barley is a rich source of magnesium? Magnesium is a mineral act as a co-factor for 300 over enzymes in our body include glucose and insulin secretion. Therefore consumption of barley could reduce the risk of diabetes by promoting healthy blood sugar control. Barley could effectively reduce both glucose and insulin due to barley’s soluble fiber content. On top of that it contains more than 4 times the soluble fiber of common oats.

I think you should be tired of reading so much of word. I just conclude what you could benefit upon consumption of barley.

Barley is high in dietary fiber, copper, selenium, manganese, phosphorus and tryptohan which provide nutrient that help to improve our health. Barley could give protection against high cholesterol, intestinal problem, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular and breast cancer for postmenopausal women, decrease heart failure risk (heart disease), lowering risk of diabetes, prevent formation of gallstones, decrease risk of childhood asthma, reduce risk of colon cancer and reduce symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

From this assignment I learnt a lot of benefit of this grain which actually benefit human life. If u aren’t a barley-lover like me, you might want to consider be one. It would help u to reduce the risk of getting any of the above disease or health problems. Hope my posting would help u understand more about it. ^-^

~Jasonyap~

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Caffeine

There was time where I use to feel pressure and stress in my life when exams or assignments were around the corner which makes me feel unease as the time was insufficient for me to prepared myself. In order to obtain more hours in a day I would normally burn midnight oil to spend more time on reading and doing researches for the particular events. Therefore, consumption of caffeine during that particular time was crucial for me to stay awake in the night.

But just recently when I started this assignment for Chemistry I found some interesting information about caffeine which I wish to share with others about it.

Caffeine was discovered by a German Chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge during 1819. Caffeine could be found in coffee, tea, beans, leaves, nuts and certain medicine. Caffeine was name as 1, 3, 7-trimethyl- 1H-purine- 2, 6(3H, 7H)-dione under IUPAC.

Caffeine could act as a natural pesticides in plant, it could actually paralyzes and kill insects that feed upon it. (That’s sound pretty frightening that it is so deadly). What I found out was caffeine could inhibit germination of seed and high concentration of caffeine actually present in the soil of plants (coffee).
Not too much of long story on caffeine in plants. Now let me tell u more bout caffeine that we consumed daily.

Generally everyone know that coffee contain high concentration of caffeine but do you know that the way coffee is roasted will causes content of caffeine to differ?
Let me tell u about this, dark-roasted coffee contain less concentration of caffeine than light-roasted coffee. Why? Because the longer the coffee bean undergoes roasting process the lesser the content of caffeine in the coffee bean.

Do you know that intake of coffee and tea by women could reduce the risk endometrial cancer? Why is it so? It’s is because present of caffeine in coffee and tea induces in to certain enzymes that neutralize potentially cancer-causing substance in our body. Addition of that, both beverages contains several antioxidant substances such as isoflavones, flavonoids, and catechins which protect body cells from infected that can eventually lead to cancer.

As generally known caffeine is a stimulator which stimulates the adrenal gland to secrete adrenaline which increases blood pressure. When caffeine is taken in as a regular basic necessity, the risk of having high blood pressure is relatively high. Besides that, human body will develop tolerance to caffeine and will lose the effect of it to human body.

Let me summaries this topic in a brief way

Caffeine has many metabolic effects to our body, such as stimulating central nervous system via blood pressure. It also affects the function of kidney, which lead to dehydration due to increases of urination.

It could release free fatty acids from adipose tissue. Overtaking of caffeine could lead to caffeine-induced sleep disorder which causes anxiety and disturbance of individuals sleep.

Over dosage of caffeine could affect human body via physically and mentally disorder, such as anxiety, muscle twitching, headaches, increase blood pressure, increase concentration of stomach acid, increase risk of inflammation of esophagus, cause nervousness and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

So please think before u consume caffeine and try not to rely on it too much because the harm of it is quiet significant to our human body.

~Jasonyap~