A General Summary On The Substance Known As Glycerine

Glycerin may sometimes be spelled as glycerine and is a substance commercially known and used. It contains glycerol. However, the three terms are used interchangeably.

Man has seen glycerine as one of the most multipurpose and important substance. It is used in a wide range of products because of the distinctive characteristics. Its set of physical and chemical properties has made it a versatile organic compound. Food products, cosmetics, toiletries, and drugs are just a few products to which the chemical substance is employed as a constituent or a part of the processing. The compound is known in more than a thousand uses and applications.

Compared to most industrial substances, glycerine has a considerably high stability when stored under normal conditions. It usually does not react with other chemicals and is generally compatible with other materials. This substance is not known as toxic or irritating upon contact with any part of the human body. Moreover, it does not harm the environment.

This viscous liquid has no odor and color. It is hydrophilic or water-loving. Hence, it is miscible in water. This solubility in water is due to the presence of three hydroxyl groups. These hydroxyl components are also responsible for its hygroscopic nature. The compound is known as a sugar alcohol because of the presence of the hydroxyl groups. Nevertheless, glycerol is a main component of lipids and has a sweet taste. In animal fats and vegetable oils, this complex organic compound occurs in combined molecules of triglycerides.

The organic compound is obtained during saponification and transesterification. Saponification is the process involving a chemical reaction between an alkaline and a fat or oil to form soap. Transesterification is a chemical reaction between an alcohol and an ester involving an exchange of organic groups. Simplifying this definition, glycerol is obtained during soap-making and biodiesel production. Synthetic form of the compound may be produced from petrochemical building blocks.

Glycerin found for commercial use contains high concentrations of glycerol. This high concentration is achieved through subsequent concentration and purification. No matter how this chemical is produced it needs to be on the right concentration for commercial applications. This means high levels of purity with high concentrations of glycerol.

The food and beverage industry utilizes the chemical due to its hygroscopic properties. It serves as a humectant, a sweetener, a solvent and a preservative. In prepared or manufactured foods containing low amounts of fat, the substance serves as a filler. In liquors, it acts as a thickening component. A teaspoon of this organic substance has 27 calories and is about sixty percent as sweet as table sugar or sucrose. It relatively contains the same amount of energy as table sugar but it does not increase levels of blood sugar. This is why it is found in sugar substitutes. Bacteria, which may result to plaques and dental cavities, never feed on glycerol.

The American Dietetic Association classifies the organic chemical as a carbohydrate. The caloric density of table sugar and glycerol is the same, but the former has a higher glycemic index, which could be attributed to the different metabolic pathways of each compound in the body. Thus, people who follow less carbohydrate diet use this organic compound as a sweetener and a sugar substitute.

History might have found this chemical under discussion valuable, since it is a component in the production of nitroglycerine. Nitroglycerine or glycerol trinitrate (GTN) is an explosive liquid and is an important constituent of explosives such as dynamite. During the World War II, heavy demands of explosives prompted the manufacture of synthetic forms of the substance. Nevertheless, the derivative nitroglycerine is known in the medical field as a vasodilator treating heart conditions like angina.

This generally safe and nontoxic property of the substance is a typical advantage in virtually all its applications.

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