Irresistible "Potions"

Our chem lab session~♥

2009-07-30T18:22:00.007+08:00

I dint took much pictures for this session but just a pictures of some of us.
By the way, our last chem lab session for our 1st year 1st sem is 16th July 09.

♥Girls: Eva Valery Janice Tiff Jesse Me (from top to bottom, left to right)♥

♥Jesse PuiYee Tiff Me (from top to bottom, left to right)♥

Here is a few photos from the first chemistry lab session ♥

♥Mr. See Janice Me Eva Valery (from left to right)♥

♥Kevin MaNi Tiff Jesse Xiong (from left to right)♥

My groupmates and also my coursemates ^^

And lastly a group picture with our chemistry lecturer, Ms. Alice Phua

♥Eva Jesse Kevin Ms.Alice Tiff Janice Valery Me (from left to right)♥
♥theme of the day: rainbow lol♥
ps: took the pic on 4th of June 09..

Recycle please!!!

2009-07-29T20:47:00.004+08:00

Today is wednesday and guess what...
Tonight have "pasar malam" aka night market.
Every wednesday, there's night market at Taman Connaught, a housing area I'm living in during my school days.

So, what does night market have to do with recycle?
Well, this is about plastic bags.
Here at the night market, every hawker stalls and little stalls uses plastic bags.
Can you imagine how many plastic bags are used in a night for the purposes of packing your food, vegetables, fruits and even clothes and accessories.
Plastic bags are unable to decay in the earth.

Info about plastic bags from Jesse ^^

Please save mother earth by reducing the usage of plastic bags.
Just like what I did today, I brought a recycle bag to night market to keep the things i bought from the night market, so that I don't need to use the plastic bags they provide.
This is what jusco doing too, use a recycle bag to replace plastic and paper bags.

more news on Jusco's recycling plan

Dear all, please make it a habit by using a recycle bag as a response to the slogan "save mother earth" by recycling.

CFC contributes to Global Warming, Why?

2009-07-25T16:50:00.014+08:00

We often heard about global warming. The first time I heard about global warming is when I'm 14 or 15 years old. What about you? Global warming has been a serious worldwide issues. How much you know about global warming? So, What is global warming? Global Warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth. As the Earth is getting hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting more frequent. Most of us has been encourage to decrease the usage of air-conditioners, aerosol sprays and etc. The reason is by using air-conditioner and aerosol spray produces CFC. For your information, CFC actually contributes to global warming. Do you know why? Here's some information about CFC and the answer to the question.

Chloroflourocarbons (CFC’s, freons) are small gaseous molecules containing carbon, fluorine, and chlorine. They were developed in the early 1930s by chemists searching for a new refrigerant to replace the toxic ammonia and sulfur dioxide then in use. Chloroflourocarbons have become widely used as dry-cleaning solvents, as refrigerants for freezers, refrigerators, and air-conditioning units, and as propellants in aerosol cans for dispensing many consumer products, including deodorants, hair sprays, whipped cream, metered-dose inhalants, and window cleaners. Two examples of CFC’s are shown below:

CCl₃F - Freon 11 (bp 24^oC)

CCl₂F₂ - Freon 12 (bp -30^oC)

Because of their stability, chloroflourocarbons are not readily biodegraded or chemically destroyed after use on the earth’s surface. Instead, they slowly diffuse toward the upper atmosphere. In the middle of stratosphere, about 8 to 13 miles above the earth’s surface, is a layer of ozone (O3), a form of elemental oxygen that is approximately 20 miles thick. This ozone absorbs certain levels of ultraviolet radiation and in doing so shields the earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays. As it absorbs the UV light, ozone is converted to molecular oxygen (O2) and oxygen atoms. Recombination of these and other naturally occurring oxygen atoms regenerates ozone.

O₃ ------→O + O₂
uv light

Ultraviolet light also causes chloroflourocarbons to dissociate, a process that produces chlorine atoms, chlorine free radicals. In the stratosphere, there chlorine atoms react with ozone to form chlorine monoxide and molecular oxygen; a molecule of ozone is destroyed. This would not cause a serious ozone depletion if it weren’t for a subsequent reaction in which the chlorine monoxide reacts with naturally radical and molecular oxygen. This new chlorine atom can attack and destroy yet another ozone molecule. A free radical chain reaction is initiated by each CFC molecule that is dissociated, and each chain results in the destruction of thousands of molecules of ozone.

Chain Initiation:

CCl₂F₂ → ·CF₂Cl + Cl·

Chain Propagation:

Cl· + O₃ → ClO· + O₂

ClO· + O₃ → Cl· + 2 O₂

Even small depletions in the ozone layer result in increasing levels of ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth’s surface; this can cause significant increases in sunburn, skin cancer and eye disease. There are also serious implications for plant and aquatic life as well as climatologically changes. Measurable effects of damage to the ozone layer include a decrease in some frog populations because increased UV radiation destroys their eggs, which float near the surface of the water, and regional holes in the ozone shield that appear over the Arctic and Antarctic.

International agreements and accelerated efforts by some nations and industries are in effect to phase out the use of CFC’s and other substances that cause depletion of the ozone layer. Other substances include the agricultural fumigant, methyl bromide; halons, bromide-containing fluorocarbons used in fire protections systems and hydrochloroflourocarbons (HCFC’s), a less threatening replacement of CFC’s (the hydrogen on HCFC’s make them more susceptible to oxidation and destruction in the lower atmosphere). Common aerosol replacements for CFC’s include gaseous hydrocarbons such as propane and butane. Even with those efforts underway, it is uncertain how long it will take the environment to recover from the damage already done.

References:

"The Ozone Hole-Chloroflourocarbons". <http://www.theozonehole.com/cfc.htm>
"Haloalkane". >
"Ozone". >
"Ozone depletion". <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion>
Bailey, P.S., Bailey, C.A., Organic Chemistry. 6th Ed. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Orange Juice? Berries?

2009-07-23T15:20:00.006+08:00

Orange juice.... hmm... What do you thought of when I mention orange juice?
The first thing come to our mind is orange contains high concentration of vitamin C.
So does berries, such as blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and etc.

When we're young, parents often give us vitamin c tablets or multi-vitamin tablets. have you ever wondered what are these vitamins? And what is their function in our body?
well here is a brief information about vitamin c a.k.a. ascorbic acid.

Vitamin C, formal chemical name L-ascorbic acid, is an odourless, stable, white solid, soluble in water, slightly soluble in ethanol, and insoluble in organic solvents. Ascorbic acid can be synthesized from glucose or galactose in a wide variety of plants and in most animal species. The exceptions to this rule are humans and other primates, guineapigs, fruit-eating bats and many fish because they lack the final enzyme, L-gulonolactone to L-ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is readily oxidized in the body to dehydroascorbic acid, which in turn can be reduced back to ascorbic acid. This ability to participate in oxidation-reduction reactions is the basis for most of the known functions of the vitamin.

The best-defined function of vitamin C is its role in the synthesis of collagen, the principal connective tissue protein found in tendons, arteries, bone, skin and muscle.
Considerable attention has recently been focused on the antioxidant function of vitamin C. The water-soluble nature of vitamin C permits it to act as an efficient antioxidant against a wide range of intra and extracellular free radicals.

Fruits and vegetables are the major sources of vitamin C in the diet, contributing together up to 90% of the vitamin intake in countries like New Zealand and the UK. Fruit juices and drinks fortified with vitamin C are the most significant source in some groups, such as adolescents.
Vitamin C is not stored for too long in the body. When a vitamin C-free diet is consumed, approximately 3% of the total body pool is lost per day, although this proportion decreases considerably with duration of the diet. In the range of usual intake, almost half of the urinary metabolites of vitamin C appear as oxalic acid. When vitamin C intake greatly exceeds physiological requirement, there is some increase in oxalate excretion but most of the vitamin is excreted as un-metabolized vitamin C.

Refer here for world's healthiest food ranked as quality sources of vitamin C

References:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=109
Mann, J., Truswell, A. S., Essentials of Human Nutrition. 3rd Ed. Oxford Dictionary Press.

yum yum....

2009-07-22T16:40:00.004+08:00

Lately, I'm kinda addicted to yugurts... yumm... I bet no one able to resist it, even those that hate milks like my friend, Jesse. She's in love with yugurt drinks too. Speaking of yugurt, have you ever wonder how they come around?

Yogurt, which got its name from the Turkish word "yogurur", which translates to "long life", comes in many variations. Some of these include: full cream, low fat, fat free and even organic yogurt.

Yogurt is defined as fermented acid milk, in which lactose has been transformed into lactic acid, using a microbiological system. A product with purified milk (sterilised or pasteurised) ith a variable amount of fat (whole milk, partially skimmed milk, skimmed milk), which is inoculated with selected cultures of Lactosebacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, left to ferment at a temperature of about 44 degree Celsius until it coagulates and then cooled and preserved at low temperature. According to the FDA (The Food and Drug Administration), in order for a product to be called "yogurt" it must be made by combining bacteria such as Lactosebacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus to the dairy product.

Bacteria such as Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus can respire anaerobically, which converts milk sugar and lactose to lactic acid. The presence of lactic acid lowers the pH in the milk causing protein to coagulate forming curdds or yughurt. Moreover, lactic acid also restrict the growth of food poisoning bacteria. During the yogurt fermentation some flavours are produced, which give yogurt its characteristic flavour.

Lactate fermentation occurs in some bacteria. When the oxygen level is limited due to the rate of consumption exceeding the rate of supply, anaerobic respiration (lactac fermentation) occurs. Glucose is converted to pyruvated during glycolysis, generates a net gain of 2ATP and NAD+ reduced to NADH. Pyruvate is reduced to lactate by NADH and NAD+ is regenerated.

Yoghurt can easily be made at home using a live yogurt as the starter culture. To make your own yogurt use the following process:

Bring the milk to boiling point and cool down to 40-45 degree Celsius.
Pour this milk in a sterile container and about 100 mL live yogurt is added per liter milk.
Mix with a sterile spoon and incubate at 40-44 degree Celsius for 4 to 6 hours or until the yogurt is set.
Put the yogurt in teh refrigerator. if you worked under hygienic conditions, you an use your own yogurt as a starter for your next batch.

Homemade Yogurt

References:

http://health.learninginfo.org/yogurt.htm
"lactic acid fermentation". http://www.tempeh.info/fermentation/lactic-acid-fermentation.php
"Yugurt". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoghurt
"Yogurt Forever: The Yogurt Enclopaedia". http://www.yogurtforever.org/download/yogforevuk.pdf

Pain Killer

2009-05-15T16:49:00.017+08:00

Panadol and uphamol can be really useful in my family's daily life, not sure about you.
When I'm young, I used to see my mom taking panadol almost everyday.
Well like all kids, I asked my mom what is she eating and why she eat it.
She answered me, "Its panadol, I take 'em everyday because you children so naughty, makes me headache everyday."
Ermm.. Mostly its true, we kids can be such a pain in the neck.

Well I dint know about these pills much till I'm form 4 or form 5, when chemistry comes into my life officially.
As we all science students know, these pills are a kind of paracetamol.
We also learned about aspirin.
Both aspirin and paracetamol are part of the class of drugs known as analgesic.
Analgesics are a class of drugs used to relieve pain.
The pain relief induced by analgesics occurs either by blocking pain signals going to the brain ot by interfering with the brain's interpretation of the signals, without producing anesthesia or loss of conciousness.

So, what is aspirin?
Aspirin is categorized under a group of drugs called salicylates.
It helps to reduce substances that cause pain, fever and inflammation.
Aspirin is usually used to treat mild to moderate pain, and also to reduce fever and inflammation.
Something new to me is that aspirin is sometimes used to treat or prevent heart attacks, strokes and angina.
But aspirin should be used for cardiovascular conditions under the supervision of a doctor.
Most of the time, aspirin is considered as a pain-relieve.

There are also side effects of taking aspirin,
one of the common side effect is gastrointestinal bleeding.
Daily aspirin use increasees your risk of developing a stomach ulcer.
And, if you have a bleeding ulcer, taking aspirin will cause it to bleed more, perhaps to a life-threatening extent.
Allergic reaction are one of the side effects too.
If you're allergic to aspirin, taking any amount of aspirin can trigger a serious allergic reaction.

What about paracetamol?
Paracetamol is a common analgesic and antipyretic drug that is used for the relief of fever, headaches, and other minor aches and pains.
It is also a major ingredient in numerous cold and flu medications and many prescription analgesics.
Paracetamol has been in use for home medication for over 30 years and is accepted as a very effective treatment for the relief of pain and fever in adults and children.
Paracetamol is also known as acetaminophen.

Paracetamol rarely causes side effects as long as it is taken as directed.
However, prolonged or habitual use of paracetamol may lead to liver damage or failure.
Rare side effects of paracetamol includes hives, rash, short breath.

It is best that paracetamol taken with food or milk.

References:

Eustice, C. & R., 2008. The Facts of Analgesics (Painkillers). <http://arthritis.about.com/od/analgesic/a/factsanalgesics.htm>
Mayo Clinic staff, 2008. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER) <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/daily-aspirin-therapy/HB00073>
"Paracetamol" <http://www.themedicine.net/drugs/paracetamol.html>
<http://www.pharmweb.net/pwmirror/pwy/paracetamol/pharmwebpic.html>

welcome

2009-05-07T21:17:00.000+08:00

♥ Don't resist them ♥
♥ cause you need 'em and facing "potions" aka chemistry everyday ♥

Smooth hair? Try hair conditioner?

2009-05-04T18:22:00.007+08:00

People often ask me about how I maintain my long hair and also what brand of shampoo & conditioner I'm using.
Well, aren't all conditioners are the same?
Just a small advice here, choose your shampoo and conditioner wisely based on your very own hair condition.

Its important for girls to use conditioner after washing your hair with shampoo to maintain your healthy, smooth, silky, shinny, you name it hair. (can't think of anymore words)
But here is something I do before I buy my brand of shampoo and conditioner, I'll look at the ingredients of the conditioner or shampoo, even though I know nothing about it. LOL.
There are like 3 to 4 brands of shampoo and conditioners in my house.
Well, there are 5 females in my house which is my grandma, aunt, 2 cousin sisters and me.
By the way, my granny does not use conditioner.

Now, I'm doing a mini research about the ingredients in the conditioners.
Here's a few common ingredients that can be found in hair conditioners:

Cetearyl alcohol
Panthenol/D-panthenol
Propylene glycol
Dimethicone

So, what are these chemical subtances?
And what are their uses in the conditioners?
Well some of us may be worried that these chemicals are toxic and harmful to our body or may cause cancer.
Actually, they're not harmful at a low concentration in our conditioners.
So, no worries at all. Chill...

OK, now I'll start with Panthenol.
What is Panthenol?
Panthenol is the alcohol analog of pantothenic acid(vitamin B5), which is essential to all life and is a component of co enzyme A (CoA).
Panthenol comes in 2 enantiomers, which is the D and L.
But only the D-panthenol is biologically active.
Therefore, some conditioners contained D-panthenol and some are just panthenol.
However, in hair, it does not contain living cells, so panthenol or D-panthenol, it will still remain as panthenol only.

So, what is the usage of panthenol in our conditioners?
Based on the common theory by public, panthenol able to binds with hair follicles readily, thus coats the hair and seals its surface, lubricating the hair shaft and making hair strands appear shinny.
But based on the experiments on rats, result shows that a deficiency of pantothenic acid can cause hair turning grey and fall off.
However, there aren't any significant results of any form of panthenol able to prevent or treat grey hair or balding on humans.
Therefore, there isn't any strong scientific evidence that is able to support the common theory of panthenol in hair conditioners.

Cetearyl alcohol or cetostearyl alcohol or cetylstearyl alcohol known as emulsifying wax, also a component of the hydrophilic ointment ingredient.
It is an aliphatic compound alcohol consisting of cetyl and stearyl alcohols.
Cetearyl alcohol is used as a stabilizer, emulsifier and thickener.

Propylene glycol also known as 1,2-propanediol is an aliphatic alcohol too, which is odourless, colourless, vicious, highly hygroscopic liquid.
Hygroscopic substance tends to absorb moisture from the air.
It is a less toxic chemical substance cause it is used as food addictive.

Due to the similar properties of cetearyl alcohol and propylene glycol, both of them act as a humescent in the moisturizer to maintain the moisture of our hair.
And also prevent the escape of moisture or water.
This is the usage of both chemical substances in the hair conditioners.

Lastly, what is dimethicone?
Dimethicone is a common name of polydimethysiloxane (PDMS).
PDMS is a silicon-based organic polymer.
It is particularly known for its unusual rheological (flow) properties.
In the shampoo, dimethicone makes hair shinny and slippery.
It is being used as a moisturizer and lubricant to treat or prevent dry skin, and some minor skin irritations.
For example: Vaseline, mineral oil and paraffins.
Dimethicone is used to treat hair lice.
As you can see, PDSM is generally considered to be non-toxic.

References:

Turner, Judith; Rebecca Frey. "Pantothenic Acid." Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. The Gale Group, Inc. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 7 May. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
DAVID A. BENDER. "pantothenic acid." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 7 May. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
"Polydimethylsiloxane." The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Answers.com 13 May. 2009. http://www.answers.com/topic/dimethyl-polysiloxane
"1,2-propanediol" <http://chemindustry.ru/1,2-Propanediol.php>