Fun Fact Friday

 

Trisodium Citrate!

Thats right, its nerd time!

Na3C6H5O7, also known as just plain sodium citrate. This is the key ingredient in my stage blood that makes it wash out of clothing while maintaining its edibility/safety.

Many of us have consumed trisodium citrate at some point or another. It is mainly used as a food additive for preservation and/or flavor. If you have ever had the energy drinks Rockstar or Redbull then you have had this in your system.

Funny enough, it is used as an anticoagulant in blood transfusions and for the preservation of blood in blood banks. Kind of fitting that it would be a key component in fake blood!

The last bit that makes this chemical so useful is that it is used as a bio-degradable builder in detergents!

How did I figure out how to use this in blood and where did I get it?

Accidentally and I made it accidentally. (not very glamorous, but why lie?)

I have learned a lot about chemistry in the past few weeks. The drive behind my newly invested chemistry fervor has been to figure out why the hell my blood mixture was turning into the slime from Ghostbusters (Remember the giant tongue in the bathtub?)

What I discovered was that I had citric acid in my mixture. When I added Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) it caused a reaction. Baking soda is a base, when a base and acid meet its like the Capulets and the Montagues at a dinner party. The product of this violent Shakespearean dinner is Carbon Dioxide (which makes it rise and chase you), water, and Trisodium Citrate! Booyah!

After that I racked my memory banks from all the chemistry courses I had taken through High School and College, drew a blank, gave up, and googled what I had just done.

To continue with the honesty track, this isn't the only ingredient in my final mixture, and the discovery for me is still way too new to know all of the effects. I do know that it washes out of clothes and it has been friendly to my skin and stomach. There need to be more tests done to know for sure that it is friendly to everyone. The isolated chemical trisodium citrate can be an irritant on its own, so buying it separate may not be as effective.

Who knew that Chemistry would make such a difference to a theatre major...

Greg