Iodine / Ascorbic acid expriment

pict

pict

Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
2,373
Today I had a local pharmacy make my up 100 capsules containing 50 mg of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). I plan to try to use them to neutralize the iodine I put in the water to sterilize it.

I recently took five guys out on their first survival camping trip and quickly realized that I was going to run through my meager supply of Potable Aqua Plus in one long weekend trying to keep six people hydrated. The PA Plus tablets are merely 45 mg of ascorbic acid according to the lable.

I taught them how to use Iodine solution, 5 drops per canteen for water purification. This is fine for drinking but becomes a problem when you try to cook anything containing starch. Oatmeal turns bright blue; rice water starts getting darker and darker. The water post-treated with ascorbic acid doesn’t do this.

I’m going to try this experiment later today once the capsules get here. One hundred capsules of pure ascorbic acid cost me $3.50. A 50 ml bottle of Iodine drops costs about $.75.

I may have to play around with the dosage but I’ll keep you posted. Has anyone ever tried this before? Mac
 
I had heard that ascorbic acid would neutralize the iodine taste and I did a test about a year ago. My experience was that it did not remove the taste. Maybe I did not use enough Vit C but it was getting pretty tart. A tart iodine taste - not good. Let me know how your tests go. Maybe I missed something.
 
I use 500 mg Vitamin C tabs with real orange juice... made by Spring Valley. They definitely kill the iodine taste.

It might add an interesting dimension to cooking too!
 
I never minded the iodine taste personally,however I have also read somewhwere that absorbic acid might be a bad thing as far as purification goes.I can not remember where I read this but I seem to remember someone stating that absorbic acid could actually reduce the efficiency of the iodine in the water,could someone please verify this?
 
Originally posted by marsupial
[...] I seem to remember someone stating that absorbic acid could actually reduce the efficiency of the iodine in the water, [...]
Click to expand...
I can't confirm that, but the advice I've seen says to add it after the iodine has done its thing.
 
The ascorbic acid interrupts/neutralizes the bacteria killing action of iodine.

Add ascorbic acid 30 minutes after iodine in clear water and 60 minutes after in cloudy water.
 
I treated a measured liter of water with eight drops of 2% Iodine solution this morning. I then pulled apart one of the 50 mg Ascorbic Acid capsules and dumped the contents into the pitcher. The vitamin C floated on top of the water and had to be stirred in. Immediately the orange/brown tint went away and the water got slightly cloudy with the semi-dissolved ascorbic acid. The taste was the same as water treated with Potable Aqua Plus.

It seemed to me that 50 mg of ascorbic acid was overkill to treat eight drops of Iodine. The stuff can’t hurt; it’s only vitamin C. Personally I would rather drink an excess of vitamin C than Iodine anyway.

You must add the ascorbic acid after the iodine has killed all the little buggies, 30 min to an hour later. Once it is added it only takes a minute or two to eliminate the iodine.

As far as I'm concerned the test was a success. I'm going to run it again and try the water with oatmeal. If you've never seen the "Blue Oatmeal Trick" you should try it with oyur iodine treated water. It could be a real bummer if that's all the water you had to cook with.

Does anyone know what is produced by the reaction of ascorbic acid and iodine? Mac
 

Attachments

  • temp.gif
    temp.gif
    1.4 KB · Views: 46
OK, so how much of that does it take to kill the average lab rat?
 
OK, so how much of that does it take to kill the average lab rat?
Click to expand...
I can find almost anything using google. Sometimes, I scare myself. :eek:

Here's your answer, for a rat.

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid):
Oral: lethal dose (50 percent kill): 11,900 mg/kg (Taken from here.)

Iodine:
Oral: lethal dose (50 percent kill): 14 gm/kg (Taken from here.)

Vitamin C appears to be pretty safe - Iodine appears to be a bit on the dangerous side.

Any other questions? :)

-- Rob
 
Originally posted by baraqyal
I can find almost anything using google. Sometimes, I scare myself. :eek:

Here's your answer, for a rat.

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid):
Oral: lethal dose (50 percent kill): 11,900 mg/kg (Taken from here.)

Iodine:
Oral: lethal dose (50 percent kill): 14 gm/kg (Taken from here.)

Vitamin C appears to be pretty safe - Iodine appears to be a bit on the dangerous side.

Any other questions? :)

-- Rob
Click to expand...
Rob,

Unless you've transposed "mg" for "gm", it looks like iodine is actually slightly safer than vitamin C (for a rat).
 
You know, it looks like you're right.

I took it right from the website, cut and paste. I always hated the "gm" abbreviation for gram - too easy to mistype/misread as mg.

Here's a bit more from the iodine link:

Human, Oral: lowest published lethal dose: 28 mg/kg
Dog, Oral : lowest published lethal dose: 800 mg/kg
Mouse, Oral: lethal dose (50 percent kill): 22 gm/kg

It appears that either the website is wrong, or Humans are just very sensitive to Iodine, in comparison to dogs and especially rodents.

As for Vitamin C:

Oral, Mouse: lethal dose (50 percent kill): 3,367 mg/kg
Oral, Rat : lethal dose (50 percent kill): 11,900 mg/kg

So, for some reason, Rats are less sensitive to ascorbic acid than mice.

I can't find an LD50 dose of Vitamin C for humans, though. I do know that it will cause a severe case of the runs far before it will kill you when taken orally. And, that you would have to take an awful lot of it to even get to the point of being sick.

-- Rob
 
If you're boiling the water, as when cooking oatmeal, rice, etc., the water is sterilized by the boiling and there is little additional benefit from addition of iodine.
 
Howard,

That is true but sometimes the only water you have is the treated water in your canteen. Right now its rainy season here and we have more water than we know what to do with. I hike in areas that are semi-desert in the dry season. Once you leave the valley there is no more water. Mac
 
Have you tried any other water purifying agents? Regular Clorox Bleach even has a table on the back of the jug for purifying drinking water. Since I'm already used to the taste of chlorine in my water, I think it would taste better than iodine, and doesn't the chorine evaporate off anyway? I also brew some of my own wine, and have plenty of Sodium Metabisulfite for sterilizing the must. It too, will purify water, but it takes a day to work. If you use too much, the water will smell like match heads, but the smell evaporates eventually. Any other thoughts?
 
Most blue foods, (think what happens to red onions or red cabbage when over cooked) is anthocyanins. http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/ref/equipment/acquisition/common.htm shows anthocyanin to be a carbon structure with some hydroxyl groups. They usually activate in food in response to acid levels. Right above the anthocyanin description is amylose, or corn starch. Anthocyanins share a similar chemical description... Maybe iodine is a catalyst to their formation?

Phil
 
If a child drinks iodine solution or swallows Potable Aqua tablets the antidote printed on the label is to drink a thin paste of starch or flour. Apparently the result of this reaction is less harmful than the iodine itself in high concentrations.

Just try feeding a teenager bright blue oatmeal for breakfast. The reaction is far more dangerous than a bowl-full of Potable Aqua tabs and milk. Mac
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top