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Minerals
and Metals
Borax:
COMMON NAME: Borax,
LATIN NAME: also called sodium borate,
or sodium tetraborate, or disodium tetraborate, is
an important boron compound, a mineral, and a salt of boric acid.
DESCRIPTION: It is usually a white powder
consisting of soft colorless crystals that dissolve easily in water.
USES: Borax has a wide variety of uses.
It is a component of many detergents, cosmetics, and enamel glazes.
It is also used to make buffer solutions in biochemistry, as a fire
retardant, as an anti-fungal compound for fibreglass, as an insecticide,
and as a flux in metallurgy. The term borax is used for a number
of closely related minerals or chemical compounds that differ in
their crystal water content, but usually refers to the decahydrate.
Commercially sold borax is usually partially dehydrated.
Collodion
Collodion is toxic and highly flamable.
DESCRIPTION: It is a solution of nitrocellulose in ether or
acetone, sometimes with the addition of alcohols. Its generic name
is pyroxylin solution. As the solvent evaporates, it dries to a
celluloid-like film. It was discovered about 1846 by the French
chemist and writer Louis Ménard.
USES: It was used in early photography
to prepare the glass plates. In
medicine it is still used in wart removal medicines and in some
liquid bandages.
Lead
COMMON
NAME: lead
LATIN
NAME: Plumbum
SOURCE:
Lead is widespread throughout the world. Currently lead is usually found in ore with zinc, silver
and (most abundantly) copper, and is extracted together with these
metals. Most lead now comes from recycling.
DESCRIPTION: Lead is a chemical
element in the periodic table that has the symbol Pb and the atomic number 82. A soft, heavy, toxic and malleable
metal, lead is bluish white when freshly cut but tarnishes to dull
gray when exposed to air. There are many oxides of lead including
white, red, and yellow lead, many of which were used to color paints.
USES:
It was widely used in plumbing pipes from Roman times through the
early 1900s. The Romans used lead to sweeten wine, as lead
tastes sweet. White lead
was used as a powder in cosmetics; red lead was used as rouge. Chinese medicine used lead as an ingredient
in elixirs of life.
CAUTIONS:
Like mercury,
another heavy metal, lead is a potent neurotoxin which accumulates
in soft tissues and bone over time. It was used for over 7000 years
of human history and its poisoning dangers were known by ancient
societies. Lead is to be avoided as it causes health problems
at very low levels of exposure.
Miscellaneous
Strychnine
DESCRIPTION: Strychnine is a very toxic, colorless crystalline alkaloid.
SOURCE: The most common source is from
the seeds of the Strychnos nux vomica tree.
USES: It has been used as a pesticide,
particularly for killing rodents. It was used in Small doses of
strychnine were once used in medications as a stimulant, a laxative
and as a treatment for other stomach ailments. Strychnine has stimulant
effects at low doses but because of its high toxicity and tendency
to cause convulsions the use of strychnine in medicine was eventually
abandoned.
CAUTIONS: Strychnine causes muscular
convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion.
Strychnine is one of the most bitter substances known. Its taste
is detectable in low concentrations.
Castor oil
COMMON NAME:
Mole bean
LATIN NAME: The castor oil plant, Ricinus communis is a plant
species of the Euphorbiaceae and the sole member of the genus Ricinus
and of the subtribe Ricininae. Despite its name, the seed is not
a true bean.
SOURCE: Global castor seed production
is around 1 million tons per year. Leading producing areas are India,
China and Brazil.
USES: Castor seed is the source of castor
oil, which has a wide variety of uses. The seeds contain between
40percent and 60percent oil that is rich in triglyceride. They also
contain ricin, a poison, which is also present in lower concentrations
throughout the plant. Castor seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs
dating back to 4000 BC. The use of castor seed oil in India has
been documented since 2000 BC for use in lamps and in local medicine
as a laxative, purgative, and cathartic. Castor seed and its oil
have also been used in China for centuries, mainly prescribed in
local medicine for internal use or use in dressings.
CAUTION: Although the highly toxic nature
of castor bean (Ricinus communis) is well recognized, reports
of human toxicity are scarce. The potentially lethal doses reported
for children and adults are three beans and eight beans respectively.
In documented cases of poisoning, repeated vomiting and diarrhea
occurred.
Gum Arabic
COMMON NAME: Gum Arabic, a natural gum also called gum acacia.
LATIN NAME: It is a substance that
is taken from two sub-Saharan species of the acacia tree, Acacia
senegal and Acacia seyal.
SOURCE: The substance is grown commercially
throughout the Sahel from Senegal and Sudan to Somaliland.
USES: It is used primarily in the food
industry as a stabilizer, but has had more varied uses in the past,
including viscosity control in inks.
It is edible and remains an important ingredient in soft drink syrups, "hard"
gummy candies, and in marshmallows. As the name implies, gum arabic
is also found in chewing gums, where it provides texture to the
gum. For artists it is the traditional binder used in watercolor
paint, and was used in photography. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics
also use the gum. It is an important ingredient in shoe polish.
Pyrogalic acid
Pyrogallol or benzene-1,2,3-triol
DESCRIPTION:
It is a white crystalline powder and a powerful reducing agent.
It was first prepared by Scheele 1786 by heating gallic acid. An
alternate preparation is heating para-chlorophenoldisulphonic acid
with potassium hydroxide.
USES: When in alkaline
solution, it absorbs water readily, turning purple
from a colourless solution. It
is used in photography, hair dying, dying of suturing materials
and for oxygen absorption in gas analysis. It has antiseptic properties.
CAUTIONS: Limited exposure
to this compound is recommended. Pyrogallol is not used as a modern
hair dye due to the suspected toxicity of the compound.
Mignonette
COMMON NAMES: Mignonette (Reseda); Weld (R. luteola), Bastard Rocket
and Sweet Reseda.
LATIN NAME: R. luteola
DESCRIPTON: This is a genus of fragrant
herbaceous plants. They include
annuals, biennials and perennials. The flowers are produced in a
slender spike, each flower small, white, yellow, orange, with four
to six petals. The fruit is a small dry capsule. Flowers are extremely
fragrant. Charles Darwin used R. odorata in his studies of
self-fertilised plants, which he documented in The Effects of
Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom.
SOURCE: Native to the Mediterranean region and southwest Asia,
from the Canary Islands and Iberia east to northwest India.
USES:
It
is used in flower arrangements, perfumes and potpourri. A Victorian
favorite, it was commonly grown in pots and in window-boxes to scent
the city air. It was used as a sedative and a treatment for bruises
and a yellow dye was obtained from its roots in Roman times. The
volatile oil is used in perfume.
Potash
COMMON
NAME: Potash, derived from the English words, pot and ash, which
illustrates the early knowledge of the portion of wood ash that
is water soluble.
NAME:
The compound is written as K2CO3
SOURCE:
Until natural deposits of potash were found in Canada, the method
of obtaining potash was to burn acres of hardwood to make ash out
of which could be made lye that could be used for soap making or
boiled down to make potash. The manufacture of potash resulted in
amplifying deforestation in the United States.
DESCRIPTION:
Carbonate of
potash is an impure form of potassium carbonate mixed with other potassium salts.
USES:
To the 20th century, it was the most important chemical,
used in so many industrial processes.
It is used in making ceramics and glass, and as a fertilizer.
References
National
Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine in the National
Institute of Health, US provides information about herbs and alternative
medicine. There is information on line at http://nccam.nih.gov/health .
Books
Askham,
Anthony. 1550. A Lytel Herball. London.
Brown,
Alice Cook. 1966. Early American Herb Recipes. Bonanza Books.
New York.
Brown,
Deni. 2001. The Herb Society of America New Encyclopedia
of Herbs and their Uses. DK. London and New York.
Chase,
A. W., 1869. Dr. Chase’s Recipes. Published by Dr. Chase.
Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Chase,
A.W. 1887. Dr. Chase’s Last Receipt Book and Household
Physician. Published by F. B. Dickerson and Co. Detroit, Michigan.
Child,
(Mrs.) 1833. The American Frugal Housewife. Carter,
Hendee, and Company. Boston.
Dewees,
W.P. 1825. Treatise on the
Physical and Medical Treatment of Children (10th ed., 1854)
Philadelphia.
Hanson,
Beth (ed.) 2001. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Gourmet Herbs.
Science Press. New York, New York.
Hylton,
William H. (ed.). 1974. The
Rodale Herb Book. Rodale Press. Emmanus, Pennsylvania.
Kowalchick,
Claire and William Hylton (eds.). 1998. Rodale’s
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs.
Rodale Press. Emmanus, Pennsylvania.
Lovell,
Lucy Buffum, "Diary," 1840-44, Two Quaker Sisters reprinted in 1937. New York.
Mitchell,
Patricia. 2004. Civil War Plants and Herbs. Mitchell. Chatham,Virginia.
1819.
The Family Receipt Book.. Randolph Barnes. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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