Menthol: Synthetically-Made Organic Compounds

Goal: to post about 10 chemicals, what they do, and how they are used
Total Word Count In This Document: 1531
Title: ?10 Chemicals?

Menthol

Menthol is a synthetically-made organic compound extracted from natural plants like corn mint, peppermint, and other mint oils. It is a waxy and crystalline substance that is either clear or white in color. Due to its local anesthetic and counter-irritant qualities, it is widely used for a variety of purposes like soothing minor throat irritations, such as in lip balms and cough medications or chest decongestants, and acting as a weak kappa opioid receptor agonist.

It can also be commonly found in perfumes, aftershaves (to treat potential razor burns), oral hygiene products to reduce or treat bad
Sodium Oxalate

Sodium oxalate is the sodium or salt component of oxalic acid. Typically sodium oxalate is an odorless, white, and crystalline powder that decomposes at extremely high temperatures. Sodium oxalate is typically used as a reducing agent in most natural metabolic processes in plants and vegetables, and may also often be used as a primary standard for the standardization of potassium permanganate solutions.

Like most other oxalates, sodium oxalates is highly toxic to humans and, like the hydrofluoric dip, should be handled with extreme care and caution or otherwise avoided altogether. If accidentally exposed to or improperly handled, it can cause burning pain in the mouth, throat, and stomach, vomiting blood, headaches, muscle cramps, convulsions, severe drops in blood pressure, shock, comas, heart failure, and even death. It can also be used to remove calcium ions from the blood plasma, which can prevent blood from clotting and cause severely impair brain function.

8. AHydrocarbons

Ahydrocarbons are commonly and naturally occurring organic compounds that consist entirely of the elements hydrogen and carbon. They consist of many different chemical subgroups such as aromatic hydrocarbons or arenes, alkanes, alkenes, and alkyne-based
Lycine

Lycine is an amino acid that is commonly and widely used in the biosynthetic production of proteins. It is made up of three chemical component groups: an a-amino acid group, an a-carboxylic acid group, and a side chain lysyl, which altogether classify lycine as a charged aliphatic amino acid. Due to its complex protein structure, lycine is essential to humans, which means that it cannot be naturally produced by the body and must therefore be obtained through dietary means in order for a person to stay healthy and continue to function.

Good dietary sources of lycine are foods that are rich and high in protein, such as eggs and meat, specifically red meats, lamb, pork, and poultry. It can also be found in soy products, beans, certain cheeses like Parmesan cheese, and certain fishes like cod and sardines. It can also be found in most cereal grains and legumes, and is heavily found in traditional Middle Eastern and Mediterannean diets in foods like hummus and pita bread. For vegetarian dietary options, it can be naturally found or biosynthetically added to the rices, beans, and tortillas commonly found in traditional Mexican and Latin American