Sodium nitrite

Sodium Nitrite

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Sodium nitrite

Sodium nitrite, with chemical formula

Chemical formula

A chemical formula is a way of expressing information about the atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound, and how the relationship between those atoms changes in chemical reactions....
Na

Sodium

Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
N

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
O

Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
₂, is used as a color fixative

Colour retention agent

Colour retention agents are food additives that are added to food to prevent the color from changing. Many of them work by absorbing or binding to oxygen before it can damage food ....
and preservative

Preservative

A preservative is a natural or synthetic chemical compound that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc....
in meats and fish. When pure, it is a white to slight yellowish crystalline powder. It is very soluble in water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
and is hygroscopic. It is also slowly oxidized by oxygen in the air to sodium nitrate

Sodium nitrate

Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the chemical formula NaNO3. This salts, also known as "Chile saltpeter" or "Peru saltpeter" , is a white solid which is very soluble in water....
, NaNO₃. The compound is a strong oxidizing agent.

It is also used in manufacturing diazo

Azo compound

Azo compounds are chemical compound bearing the functional group R-N=N-R', in which R and R' can be either aryl or alkyl. The N=N group is called an azo group, although the parent compound, HNNH, is called diimide....
dye

Dye

A dye can generally be described as a colored substance that has an Chemical affinity to the Wiktionary:substrate to which it is being applied....
s, nitroso compounds, and other organic compounds; in dyeing and printing textile fabrics and bleaching fibers; in photography

Photography

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an ....
; as a laboratory reagent

Reagent

A reagent or reactant is a substance or compound consumed during a chemical reaction. Solvents and catalysts, although they are involved in the reaction, are usually not referred to as reactants....
and a corrosion inhibitor

Corrosion inhibitor

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that, when added to a fluid or gas, decreases the corrosion rate of a metal or an alloy.The effectiveness, or corrosion inhibition efficiency, of a corrosion inhibitor is a function of many factors like: fluid composition, quantity of water, flow regime.......
; in metal coatings for phosphatizing and detinning; and in the manufacture of rubber

Rubber

Natural rubber is an elastomer?an Elasticity_ hydrocarbon polymer?that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex , found in the sap of some plants....
chemicals.

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Uses

Food additive

As a food additive

Food additive

Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavour or improve its taste and appearance.Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling , edible salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in some wines....
, it serves a dual purpose in the food

Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
industry

Industry

An industry is the manufacturing of a Good or Service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw materials into goods and products....
since it both alters the color

Color

Color or colour is the visual perception property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others....
of preserved fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
and meat

Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
s and also prevents growth of Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium botulinum

Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod shaped bacteria that produces the neurotoxin botulin, which causes the flaccid muscular paralysis seen in botulism....
, the bacteria which causes botulism

Botulism

Botulism also known as "Botulinus Intoxication," is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulin toxin. The toxin is produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum....
. In the European Union it may be used only as a mixture with salt containing at most 0.6% sodium nitrite. It has the E number

E number

E numbers are number codes for food additives and are usually found on food labels throughout the European Union. The numbering scheme follows that of the International Numbering System as determined by the Codex Alimentarius committee....
E250. Potassium nitrite

Potassium nitrite

Potassium nitrite, with chemical formula 2, is a material which contains Potassium and Nitrogen.Potassiun nitrite should not be confused with potassium nitrate....
(E249) is used in the same way.

While this chemical will prevent the growth of bacteria, it can be toxic in high amounts for animals, including humans. Sodium nitrite's LD₅₀ in rats is 180 mg/kg and it's human LD_Lo

Lowest published lethal dose

In toxicology, the LDLo is the lowest dose per unit of bodyweight of a substance known to have resulted in death in a particular animal species....
is 71 mg/kg, meaning a 65 kg person would likely have to consume at least 4.615 g

Gram

The gram , ; symbol g, is a Physical unit of mass.Originally defined as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of a metre, and at the temperature of melting ice" , a gram is now defined as one one-thousandth of the SI base unit, the kilogram, or Scientific notation kg, which itself is...
to result in toxicity. To prevent toxicity, sodium nitrite sold as a food additive is dyed bright pink to avoid mistaking it for something else.

A principal concern of sodium nitrite is the formation of carcinogenic

Carcinogen

The term carcinogen refers to any substance, radionuclide or radiation that is an agent directly involved in the promotion of cancer or in the increase of its propagation....
nitrosamine

Nitrosamine

Nitrosamines are chemical compounds of the chemical structure R1N-N=O, some of which are cancer....
s in sodium nitrite containing meats exposed to high temperatures. Sodium nitrite's usage is carefully regulated in the production of cured products in the United States as the concentration in finished products is limited to 200 ppm, and is usually lower. In about 1970, it was found that ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

Ascorbic acid

Ascorbic acid is a sugar acid with antioxidant properties. Its appearance is white to light-yellow crystals or powder. It is water-soluble. The L-enantiomer of ascorbic acid is commonly known as vitamin C....
inhibited nitrosamine formation. Consequently, the addition of at least 550 ppm of ascorbic acid is required in meats manufactured in the United States. Manufacturers sometimes instead use erythorbic acid

Erythorbic acid

Erythorbic acid, formerly known as isoascorbic acid and D-araboascorbic acid, is a stereoisomer of ascorbic acid . It is a vegetable-derived food additive produced from sucrose....
, a cheaper but equally effective isomer of ascorbic acid. Additionally, manufactures may include alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E)

Alpha-tocopherol

α-Tocopherol is a type of tocopherol with formula C29H50O2. It has E number "E307"....
to further inhibit nitrosamine production. Alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, and erythorbic acid all inhibit nitrosamine production by their oxidation-reduction properties. Ascorbic acid for example, forms dehydroascorbic acid

Dehydroascorbic acid

Dehydroascorbic acid is an oxidized form of ascorbic acid. It is actively imported into the endoplasmic reticulum of cells and generates the oxidative potential found there....
when oxidized

Redox

Redox describes all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation number changed.This can be either a simple redox process such as the oxidation of carbon to yield carbon dioxide or the reduction of carbon by hydrogen to yield methane , or it can be a complex process such as the oxidation of sugar in the human body through a ser...
, which when in the presence of nitrous anhydride, a potent nitrosating agent formed from sodium nitrate, reduces the nitrous anhydride into the nitric oxide

Nitric oxide

Nitric oxide or nitrogen monoxide is a chemical compound with chemical formula NitrogenOxygen. This gas is an important signaling molecule in the body of mammals, including humans, and is an extremely important intermediate in the chemical industry....
gas.

Sodium nitrite consumption has also been linked to triggering migraines in individuals who already suffer from them.

A recent study has found a link between frequent ingestion of cured meats and the COPD form of lung disease. The study's researchers suggest that the high amount of nitrites in the meats was responsible, however the team did not prove the nitrite theory. Additionally, the study doesn't prove that nitrites or cured meat caused higher rates of COPD, merely a link. The researchers did adjust for many of COPD's risk factors, but they commented they can't rule out all possible unmeasurable causes or risks for COPD.

Disease treatment

Recently, sodium nitrite has been found to be an effective means to increase blood flow by dilating blood vessel

Blood vessel

The blood vessels are the part of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the artery, which carry the blood away from the heart, the capillary, which enable the actual exchange of water and chemicals between the blood and the tissues; and the veins, which carry blood from...
s, acting as a vasodilator. Research is ongoing to investigate its applicability towards treatments for sickle cell anemia, cyanide poisoning, heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when the Blood flow to part of the heart is interrupted. This is most commonly due to occlusion of a coronary artery following the rupture of a Vulnerable plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids and white blood cells in the wall of an artery....
s, brain aneurysms, and pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension

In medicine, pulmonary hypertension is an increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein, or pulmonary capillaries, together known as the lung Pulmonary circulation, leading to dypsnea, dizziness, fainting, and other symptoms, all of which are exacerbated by exertion....
in infants.

Synthetic reagent

Sodium nitrite is used to convert amine

Amine

Amines are organic compounds and functional groups that contain a base nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are derivative s of ammonia, wherein one or more hydrogen atoms are replaced by organic substituents such as alkyl and aryl groups....
s into diazo compounds. The synthetic utility of such a reaction is to render the amino group labile for nucleophilic substitution

Nucleophilic substitution

In organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry, nucleophilic substitution is a fundamental class of substitution reaction in which an "electron rich" nucleophile selectively bonds with or attacks the positive or partially positive charge of an atom attached to a group or atom called the leaving group; the positive or partially positive atom...
, as the N₂ group is a better leaving group

Leaving group

A leaving group in chemistry is an ion or substituent with the ability to detach itself from a molecule. The remaining molecule or fragment remaining is known as the residual or main part....
.

In the laboratory, sodium nitrite is also used to destroy excess sodium azide

Sodium azide

Sodium azide is the chemical compound with the chemical formula NaN3. This colourless azide salt is a common reagent in organic synthesis, and it is a component in many car airbag systems....
.

NaNO₂ + H₂SO₄ → HNO₂ + NaHSO₄

2 NaN₃ + 2 HNO₂ → 3 N₂ + 2 NO + 2 NaOH

External links

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (public domain)
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