Ethanol - what is this substance? What is its use and how is it produced? Ethanol is better known to everyone under a different name - alcohol. Of course, this is not quite the correct designation. But meanwhile, it is under the word "alcohol" that we mean "ethanol". Even our ancestors knew about its existence. They obtained it through a fermentation process. Various products from cereals to berries were used. But in the resulting Braga, which is what alcoholic drinks were called in the old days, the amount of ethanol did not exceed 15 percent. Pure alcohol could be isolated only after they studied the processes of distillation.
Ethanol - what is it?
Ethanol is a monohydric alcohol. Under normal conditions, it is a volatile, colorless, flammable liquid with a specific odor and taste. Ethanol has found wide application in industry, medicine and everyday life. It is an excellent disinfectant. Alcohol is used as a fuel and as a solvent. But most of all, the formula of ethanol C2H5OH is known to lovers of alcoholic beverages. It is in this area that this substance has found wide application. But notit is worth forgetting that alcohol as an active ingredient in alcoholic beverages is a strong depressant. This psychoactive substance can depress the central nervous system and cause severe addiction.
Nowadays it is difficult to find an industry that does not use ethanol. It is difficult to list everything that alcohol is so useful for. But most of all, its properties were appreciated in pharmaceuticals. Ethanol is the main component of almost all medicinal tinctures. Many "grandmother's recipes" for the treatment of human ailments are based on this substance. It draws all useful substances from plants, accumulating them. This property of alcohol has found application in the manufacture of homemade herbal and berry tinctures. And although they are alcoholic beverages, in moderation they bring he alth benefits.
Benefits of ethanol
The ethanol formula is known to everyone since school chemistry lessons. But here is the benefit of this chemical, not everyone will immediately answer. In fact, it is difficult to imagine an industry where alcohol would not be used. First of all, ethanol is used in medicine as a powerful disinfectant. They treat the operating surface and wounds. Alcohol has a detrimental effect on almost all groups of microorganisms. But ethanol is used not only in surgery. It is indispensable for the manufacture of medicinal extracts and tinctures.
In small doses, alcohol is good for the human body. It helps to thin the blood, improve blood circulation and dilate blood vessels. It even appliesfor the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Ethanol helps to improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. But only in really small doses.
In special cases, the psychotropic effect of alcohol can drown out the most severe pain. Ethanol has found application in cosmetology. Due to its pronounced antiseptic properties, it is included in almost all cleansing lotions for problematic and oily skin.
Ethanol Harm
Ethanol is an alcohol produced by fermentation. With excessive use, it can cause severe toxicological poisoning and even coma. This substance is part of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol causes the strongest psychological and physical dependence. Alcoholism is considered to be a disease. The harm of ethanol is immediately associated with scenes of rampant drunkenness. Excessive consumption of drinks containing alcohol leads not only to food poisoning. Everything is much more complicated. With frequent drinking of alcohol, almost all organ systems are affected. From oxygen starvation, which causes ethanol, brain cells die in large numbers. There is a degradation of personality. In the early stages, memory weakens. Then a person develops diseases of the kidneys, liver, intestines, stomach, blood vessels and heart. In men, there is a loss of potency. In the last stages of the alcoholic, a deformation of the psyche is revealed.
History of alcohol
Ethanol - what is this substance and how was it obtained? Not everyone knows that it has been used since prehistoric times. Heincluded in alcoholic beverages. True, its concentration was small. But meanwhile, traces of alcohol have been found in China on 9,000-year-old pottery. This clearly indicates that people in the Neolithic era drank alcoholic beverages.
The first case of obtaining alcohol was recorded in the 12th century in Salerno. True, it was a water-alcohol mixture. Pure ethanol was isolated by Johann Tobias Lovitz in 1796. He used the activated carbon filtration method. For a long time, the production of ethanol by this method remained the only method. The formula for alcohol was calculated by Nicolo-Théodore de Saussure, and described as a carbon compound by Antoine Lavoisier. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many scientists studied ethanol. All its properties have been studied. Currently, it has become widespread and is used in almost all spheres of human activity.
Production of ethanol by alcoholic fermentation
Perhaps the most famous way to produce ethanol is alcoholic fermentation. It is possible only when using organic products that contain a large amount of carbohydrates, such as grapes, apples, berries. Another important component for fermentation to proceed actively is the presence of yeast, enzymes and bacteria. Processing of potatoes, corn, rice looks the same. To obtain fuel alcohol, raw sugar is used, which is produced from cane. The reaction is quite complex. As a result of fermentation, a solution is obtained that contains no more than 16% ethanol. A higher concentration cannot be obtained. This is due to the fact that moresaturated solutions, yeast is not able to survive. Thus, the resulting ethanol must be subjected to purification and concentration processes. Usually distillation processes are used.
To obtain ethanol, different strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are used. In principle, all of them are able to activate this process. Sawdust can be used as a nutrient substrate or, alternatively, a solution obtained from them.
Fuel
Many people know about the properties that ethanol has. That it is alcohol or a disinfectant is also widely known. But alcohol is also a fuel. It is used in rocket engines. A well-known fact - during the First World War, 70% hydrous ethanol was used as fuel for the world's first German ballistic missile - the V-2.
At present, alcohol has become more widespread. As a fuel, it is used in internal combustion engines, for heating devices. In laboratories, it is poured into alcohol lamps. The catalytic oxidation of ethanol is used for the production of heating pads, both military and tourist. Restricted alcohol is used in a mixture with liquid petroleum fuels due to its hygroscopicity.
Ethanol in the chemical industry
Ethanol is widely used in the chemical industry. It serves as a raw material for the production of substances such as diethyl ether, acetic acid, chloroform, ethylene, acetaldehyde, tetraethyl lead, ethyl acetate. In the paint industry, ethanol is widely used assolvent. Alcohol is the main ingredient in windscreen washer and antifreeze. Alcohol is also used in household chemicals. It is used in detergents and cleaners. It is especially common as an ingredient in sanitary ware and glass care fluids.
Ethyl alcohol in medicine
Ethyl alcohol can be attributed to antiseptics. It has a detrimental effect on almost all groups of microorganisms. It destroys the cells of bacteria and microscopic fungi. The use of ethanol in medicine is almost universal. This is an excellent drying and disinfecting agent. Due to its tanning properties, alcohol (96%) is used to treat operating tables and surgeon's hands.
Ethanol is a drug solvent. It is widely used for the manufacture of tinctures and extracts from medicinal herbs and other plant materials. The minimum concentration of alcohol in such substances does not exceed 18 percent. Ethanol is often used as a preservative.
Ethyl alcohol is also great for rubbing. During a fever, it produces a cooling effect. Very often alcohol is used for warming compresses. At the same time, it is absolutely safe, there is no redness and burns on the skin. In addition, ethanol is used as a defoamer when oxygen is supplied artificially during lung ventilation. Also, alcohol is a component of general anesthesia, which can be used in case of a shortage of medicines.
Oddly enough, medical ethanol is used asantidotes for poisoning with toxic alcohols, such as methanol or ethylene glycol. Its action is due to the fact that in the presence of several substrates, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase performs only competitive oxidation. It is due to this that after the immediate intake of ethanol, after toxic methanol or ethylene glycol, a decrease in the current concentration of metabolites poisoning the body is observed. For methanol it is formic acid and formaldehyde, and for ethylene glycol it is oxalic acid.
Food industry
So our ancestors knew how to get ethanol. But it was most widely used only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Along with water, ethanol is the basis of almost all alcoholic beverages, primarily vodka, gin, rum, cognac, whiskey, and beer. In small quantities, alcohol is also found in drinks that are obtained by fermentation, for example, in kefir, koumiss, and kvass. But they are not classified as alcohol, since the concentration of alcohol in them is very low. Thus, the content of ethanol in fresh kefir does not exceed 0.12%. But if it settles, then the concentration can rise to 1%. There is a little more ethyl alcohol in kvass (up to 1.2%). Most of all alcohol is contained in koumiss. In a fresh dairy product, its concentration is from 1 to 3%, and in a settled one it reaches 4.5%.
Ethyl alcohol is a good solvent. This property allows it to be used in the food industry. Ethanol is a solvent for fragrances. In addition, it can be used as a preservative for baked goods. He is registered asfood additive E1510. Ethanol has an energy value of 7.1 kcal/g.
The effect of ethanol on the human body
Ethanol production has been established all over the world. This valuable substance is used in many areas of human life. Alcohol tinctures are medicine. Wipes impregnated with this substance are used as a disinfectant. But what effect does ethanol have on our body when ingested? Is it helpful or harmful? These issues require detailed study. Everyone knows that mankind has consumed alcoholic beverages for centuries. But only in the last century the problem of alcoholism has acquired large-scale dimensions. Our ancestors drank mash, mead, and even the now so popular beer, but all of these drinks contained a low percentage of ethanol. Therefore, they could not cause significant harm to he alth. But after Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev diluted alcohol with water in certain proportions, everything changed.
At present, alcoholism is a problem in almost all countries of the world. Once in the body, alcohol has a pathological effect on almost all organs without exception. Depending on the concentration, dose, route of entry and duration of exposure, ethanol can exhibit toxic and narcotic effects. It is able to disrupt the functioning of the cardiovascular system, contributes to the occurrence of diseases of the digestive tract, including stomach and duodenal ulcers. Under the narcotic effect is meant the ability of alcohol to cause stupor, insensitivity to painsensations and inhibition of the functions of the central nervous system. In addition, a person has alcoholic excitement, very quickly he becomes addicted. In some cases, excessive consumption of ethanol can cause coma.
What happens in our body when we drink alcoholic beverages? The ethanol molecule is capable of damaging the central nervous system. Under the influence of alcohol, the hormone endorphin is released in the nucleus accumbens, and in people with pronounced alcoholism and in the orbitofrontal cortex. But, nevertheless, despite this, ethanol is not recognized as a narcotic substance, although it shows all the corresponding actions. Ethyl alcohol was not included in the international list of controlled substances. And this is a controversial issue, because at certain doses, namely 12 grams of a substance per 1 kilogram of body weight, ethanol leads first to acute poisoning, and then death.
What diseases does ethanol cause?
Ethanol solution itself is not a carcinogen. But its main metabolite, acetaldehyde, is a toxic and mutagenic substance. In addition, it also has carcinogenic properties and provokes the development of cancer. Its qualities were studied in laboratory conditions on experimental animals. These scientific works have led to very interesting, but at the same time alarming results. It turns out that acetaldehyde is not just a carcinogen, it can damage DNA.
Prolonged use of alcoholic beverages can cause diseases such as gastritis, liver cirrhosis, ulcers in humans12-colon, cancer of the stomach, esophagus, small and rectum, cardiovascular diseases. Regular ingestion of ethanol in the body can provoke oxidative damage to brain neurons. Due to damage to the blood-brain barrier, they die. Abuse of drinks containing alcohol leads to alcoholism and clinical death. People who regularly drink alcohol have a significantly higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
But that's not all the properties of ethanol. This substance is a natural metabolite. In small quantities, it can be synthesized in the tissues of the human body. It is called true endogenous alcohol. It is also produced as a result of the breakdown of carbohydrate foods in the gastrointestinal tract. Such ethanol is called "conditionally endogenous alcohol". Can an ordinary breathalyzer determine the alcohol that was synthesized in the body? Theoretically, this is possible. Its amount rarely exceeds 0.18 ppm. This value is at the lower end of the most modern measuring instruments.
