Chemistry Thursday (on a Monday!): Electrolytes

What are electrolytes? (And are they really what plants crave?) “An electrolyte is any substance containing free ions that make the substance electrically conductive. The most typical electrolyte is an ionic solution, but molten electrolytes and solid electrolytes are also possible. Commonly, electrolytes are solutions of acids, bases or salts.” (From Wikipedia). In other words, when you...

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Chemistry Thursday (on Sunday): Osmosis (updated)

What the heck is osmosis? “Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, aiming to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides. It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves, without input of energy, across a...

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Chemistry Thursday: What is a molecule?

What does it mean if something is a molecule? “A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds.” (Wikipedia). In other words, a molecule is when you have two or more atoms bound together in some way. One atom does not make a molecule – hydrogen...

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Surfactants – what are they?

Quite a few people have written to tell me lately that they are avoiding surfactants in their products. The problem is this – Surfactants aren’t just about the foamy lathery things you find in body washes and conditioners. They are found in things we eat, things we use on our hair and bodies, and even...

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Essential oils: Eugenol and the phenylpropenes

Let’s take a moment to look at the compound called eugenol (or 4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol) that we find in clove, cinnamon, allspice, bay, basic, rose, jasmine, and carnation plants and oils. “Eugenol is a phenylpropene, an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol.” (From Wikipedia.) It’s a polyphenol, meaning it has a phenyl ring (the six sided molecule) and and has a...

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