When iodine is mentioned, most of us think of a small vial and a cotton swab. This is how our mothers treated scratches and abrasions in childhood. And today you can find such iodine, the price in a pharmacy for it is cheap.
Many adults know that iodine is a very important micronutrient. It affects the functioning of the thyroid gland and is involved in the metabolic process. Iodine-containing drugs will have an order of magnitude higher price than a vial for wound treatment. What is iodine made from? And why is the price of it so different?
What is iodine?
Iodine is a mineral that is found in inorganic compounds: water, soil, after rain it can be found in the air. It is also present in many plant and animal foods. So, it is well known that there is a lot of iodine in kelp seaweed, as well as other seafood: fish, shellfish, crustaceans.
Iodine is also found in common foods that are well known to us: eggs, beef, milk, butter, ordinary cabbage, other vegetables, cereals. The whole problem is that it is in themnot enough. So, for example, cod liver (it is believed that it has a lot of iodine) contains 800 mcg of the mineral, and in order to meet the daily requirement, you need to eat 180 g of this product daily.
When deciding what is better - brilliant green or iodine, we do not think about how important iodine is in a person's daily life.
An adult needs 150 micrograms of iodine per day, and pregnant women need 200 micrograms. The norm for infants is 50 micrograms, and for a schoolchild - 120 micrograms.
Another problem associated with the delivery of this substance to the human body will be its destruction during the cooking process. So, during cooking, about 50% of this useful substance is lost. And a pack of iodized s alt in a month will contain only 50% of the declared amount.
Growing plants in mineral-poor soils will significantly reduce the amount of mineral in the respective food.
Here, the solution to the problem can be called medicines containing iodine, the price in the pharmacy for them, however, is often far from generally available.
Medical uses of iodine
Why is this mineral, found in very small amounts in the human body, so important to us?
It is only about 25 milligrams, but it plays a very important role in metabolic processes. So, about 15 mg of iodine is in the thyroid gland and is part of the hormones triiodothyronine and thyroxine formed by it. These hormones are responsible for many functions:
- have a stimulating effect on the growth and development of the body as a whole;
- regulateenergy and heat exchange;
- participate in the oxidation of carbohydrates, fats and proteins;
- accelerate the breakdown of cholesterol;
- regulation of cardiac activity is indispensable without them;
- they prevent blood clotting and blood clots;
- they are very important for the development of the central nervous system.
The remaining 10 mg is located in the reproductive organs of the ovaries (in women) and the prostate gland (in men), kidneys, liver, hair and nails.
The lack of this substance in the body of a child can cause a delay in his physical and mental development, and its excess will lead to poisoning called "iodism", possibly to disruption of the thyroid gland, a formidable disease called "hyperthyroidism".
For different purposes, the pharmaceutical industry produces different drugs. Today, medicines containing easily digestible iodine are expensive. And this is due not only to the technological process of manufacturing the drug, but also to the fact that the extraction of iodine itself is technologically complex and financially costly.
Many people are interested in the simple question of what is better - brilliant green or iodine when treating fresh wounds? It should be remembered here that iodine will not only prevent the development of the fungus and destroy the infection, Zelenka also copes well with this. It will promote faster healing of the wound - and in this case, iodine is more preferable.
Industrial use of the mineral
Iodine is important not only for providingnormal human life cycle, it is used in many industries, it is needed to produce a large number of products.
So, with the participation of this substance, they take x-ray pictures, make photographs, add it to the oil for bearings, use it to produce glass for headlights and lamps with special effects, it is needed to obtain high-purity metals.
Today, a new direction is developing in the production of incandescent lamps, where iodine plays an important role. Its use will significantly extend the life of conventional incandescent lamps with a tungsten filament.
According to statistics, 99% of known iodine reserves are in Japan and Chile, they are the main suppliers of it to the world market. Thus, Chilean companies produce over 720 tons of iodine per year.
Russia's production capacities allow producing up to 200 tons of raw mineral per year, which is 6 times less than the country's needs.
Iodine extraction from seaweed
The question of the need for industrial extraction of this substance arose in the 18th century. Even then, it was noticed that marine plants have an increased content of this important mineral. The first industrial production was the extraction of iodine from seaweed. In Russia, such a plant was built in Yekaterinburg (1915), it produced a mineral from phylloflora (Black Sea algae).
Today, the extraction of this raw mineral from algae is the most common method for obtaining iodine on an industrial scale. Production is being built nearseas, during the process, crystalline iodine is extracted from the ashes of a dried sea plant. The largest enterprises extract up to 300 tons of crystalline mineral per year.
Sea kelp is classified as the main source of industrial production of iodine. It contains 0.8-0.16% iodine (in dry matter).
Isolation of the mineral from s altpeter waste
Separation of iodine from mother brines of s altpeter production is one of the cheapest industrial methods. Here, to the question of what iodine is made of, the answer will be simple - from waste.
It was found that in the production of s altpeter (Chile or sodium) in the mother liquor remains up to 4 g of iodate and sodium iodide for every 1 kg of brine (this is 0.4%). The method has been used for more than 200 years all over the world, its main advantage is its cheapness.
Obtaining iodine from brines
Another answer to the question of what iodine is made of will be the extraction of the mineral from natural inorganic raw materials - natural brines.
The fact is that when drilling oil wells in the accompanying waters, a significant amount of iodine was found, sometimes more than 100 mcg per 1 liter, but mostly not more than 40. Potylitsyn A. L. (Russian chemist) in 1882, but extracting the mineral from brines was expensive and uneconomical.
Industrial extraction began only in Soviet times after the coal method of iodine accumulation was invented (1930). Coal is able to accumulate up to 40 g of iodine per 1 kg per month. Now it is one of the main methodsraw crystal mining in Russia.
Ionite mining
This technique is very widely used in Japan. The method is new and has been widely used only in recent decades. Here, high-molecular ion-exchange resins are used to extract the raw material.
However, it is not used in Russia, as it does not make it possible to extract all the iodine from raw materials and leaves a significant amount of it in the waste.
Innovative methods of V. Ganyaeva
Recently at the Tyumen Oil and Gas University, Professor V. Ganyaev developed a unique technology for extracting iodine from mineral water. In the summer of 2016, a special installation was created, and today it is successfully being tested.
According to scientists' calculations, the new technology is not only environmentally friendly, but also more cost-effective, it does not use chloride compounds and sulfuric acid brines. When using it, the amount of extracted raw mineral will be 24 g per 1 liter of concentrate.
So, to the question of what iodine is made of, you can also answer that in Russia - from mineral water. Although scientists believe that this technology will allow much more efficient use of brines associated with oil production.
How is medical iodine produced?
Today we are well-known antiseptic - alcohol 5% iodine, the use is getting less and less. It was replaced by preparations where iodine is used in conjunction with starch.
If we consider whether thereIs there a difference in the production of technical and medical iodine, then you should pay attention to the following.
- In the production of raw materials on an industrial scale, it is produced in the form of a crystalline mineral with a certain content of pure iodine (according to the periodic table).
- Medical iodine becomes such after the combination of raw crystals with other substances: water, alcohols, ethers.
Hence the conclusion: initially, iodine crystals are not divided into medical and technical ones - they receive this status in the process of further processing.
The price of iodine preparations in pharmacies does not depend on the main component, but on those additional components that will be included in the medicine. In the well-known antiseptic vial, there is only iodine and ethyl alcohol, while, for example, drugs for the treatment of hyperthyroidism will be 2 orders of magnitude more expensive. They contain many other components.
