Citric acid is a weak, colorless organic acid. The main sources of citric acid are citrus fruits such as limes and lemons, and due to this many people confuse citric acid and vitamin C. Citric acid is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle or Krebs cycle, an important process in the body to get…
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While cold and flu season are over for now, allergy season is here. When my allergies are in full force I get quite a tickle in my throat that causes me to cough quite frequently. To deal with this I like to keep cough drops on hand to help ease the cough.…
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Kratom is a plant native to Southeast Asia that has a variety of effects, many due to the active compound Mitragynine that is present in varying amounts in the plant. For this reason, you can find kratom in vitamin stores being sold as a supplement. It is marketed as an energy booster, mood enhancer, pain…
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Listen in as Prof Dan shows you what to do when peaks are coming out too close together in Gas Chromatography (GC) or Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). He gives some simple tips that can help better separate the peaks so you can better identify and quantify different compounds present in a sample.
Tis the season for spraying DEET in our faces to make sure we don’t get eaten alive by bugs! DEET, or N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, is one of the most widely used active ingredients in bug sprays. It was developed by the US Army for this purpose in 1946 and made available to the public in 1957. There…
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This video walks you through System Suitability, which tests your Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) or Gas Chromatograph (GC) to help you ensure that your system is functioning properly and giving good results.
Solvents are used extensively in labs and chemical manufacturing as starting materials for a chemical process; the diluent for a product, starting material, or reaction; or in the analysis of a starting material or product for quality purposes. Often times after use, that solvent is then sent into a waste stream to be dealt with…
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Join Prof Dan as he explains what an FID (Flame Ionization Detector) is. Other than Mass Spec, FID is the most common type of detector used in a GC (Gas Chromatograph). Imagine blowing a stream of chemicals into a candle then measuring the amount of static electricity, and you’ll get a rough idea of how…
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Now that spring is here and all things pollen are happening it’s time to get the allergy medicine ready. In honor of this wondrous time of year, we thought we would test some allergy meds! While not the usual way to test these medications, I decided to see if I could test using the Lucidity…
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Prof Dan explains briefly and simply what Limit of Detection and Limit of Quantitation mean, two concepts and terms that are important to understand when preforming chemical analysis with techniques like Gas Chromatography (GC) and Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
