At the mention of iodine, most of us recall a small bubble and cotton wool. This is how our mothers treated scratches and abrasions in childhood. And today you can find such iodine, the price in the pharmacy is cheap.
Many adults know that iodine is a very important trace element. It affects the functioning of the thyroid gland and is involved in the metabolism. Iodine-containing drugs will have an order of magnitude higher from the wound treatment bubble. What is iodine made from? And why is the price for 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 foods of plant and animal origin. So, it is well known that there is a lot of iodine in kelp seaweed , as well as other seafood: fish, shellfish, and crustaceans.
Iodine is also found in ordinary foods well known to us: eggs, beef, milk, butter, ordinary cabbage, other vegetables, and crops. The whole problem is that it is not enough in them. So, for example, the cod liver (it is believed that it contains a lot of iodine) contains 800 micrograms of mineral, and in order to satisfy the daily norm, 180 g of this product must be eaten daily.
When deciding which is better - greenback 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 mcg, and for a student - 120 mcg.
Another problem associated with the delivery of this substance to the human body will be its destruction during preparation. So, during cooking, about 50% of this useful substance is lost. A pack of iodized salt in a month will contain only 50% of the declared amount.
The growth of plants on soils poor in minerals will significantly reduce its amount in the corresponding food products.
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 use of iodine
Why is this mineral so important for us in very small quantities in the human body?
It is only about 25 milligrams, but it plays a very important role for 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;
- regulate energy and heat metabolism;
- participate in the oxidation of carbohydrates, fats and proteins;
- accelerate the decay of cholesterol;
- without them regulation of cardiac activity is not complete;
- they interfere with the process of blood coagulation and the formation of blood clots;
- they are very important for the development of the central nervous system.
The remaining 10 mg are located in the reproductive organs of the ovaries (in women) and the prostate (in men), kidneys, liver, hair and nails.
A deficiency of this substance in the child’s body can cause a delay in its physical and mental development, and its excess will lead to poisoning under the name "iodism", possibly to disruption of the thyroid gland, a formidable disease called "hyperthyroidism".
For various purposes, the pharmaceutical industry produces various drugs. Today, medicines containing highly digestible iodine are priced high. And this is connected not only with the technological process of drug manufacture, but also with the fact that the extraction of iodine itself is technologically complex and financially costly.
Many people are interested in the simple question of which is better - green or iodine when treating fresh wounds? It should be remembered that iodine will not only prevent the development of the fungus and destroy the infection, it also copes well with green. It will contribute to faster healing of the wound - and in this case, iodine is preferable.
Industrial Use of Mineral
Iodine is important not only to ensure a normal human life cycle, it is used in many industries, it is needed for the production of large quantities of products.
So, with the participation of this substance, X-ray photographs are taken, photographs are taken, they are added to the bearing oil, glass with the participation of headlights and lamps with special effects are produced, 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 spiral.
According to statistics, 99% of the known iodine reserves are in Japan and Chile, they are its main suppliers to the world market. Thus, Chilean companies produce over 720 tons of iodine per year.
The production capacities of Russia allow producing up to 200 tons of raw mineral per year, which is 6 times less than the country's needs.
Seaweed iodine production
The question of the need for industrial production of this substance arose in the 18th century. Even then, it was noticed that marine plants have a high 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 producing iodine on an industrial scale. Production is built near the sea, during the process crystalline iodine is extracted from the ash of a dried marine plant. The largest enterprises extract up to 300 tons of crystalline mineral per year.
Sea kelp is one of the main sources of industrial production of iodine. It contains 0.8-0.16% iodine (in dry matter).
Mineral separation from saltpeter waste
Isolation of iodine from uterine brines for the production of nitrate is one of the cheapest industrial methods. Here, to the question about what iodine is made of, the answer will be simple - from waste.
It was found that in the production of nitrate (Chilean or sodium) in the mother liquors , up to 4 g of iodate and sodium iodide are left for every 1 kg of brine (this is 0.4%). The method has been used for more than 200 years around the world, its main advantage is its cheapness.
Getting iodine from brines
Another answer to the question of what iodine is made from is the extraction of 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 micrograms per 1 liter, but mostly not higher than 40. This feature of deep waters was discovered by A. L. Potylitsyn (Russian chemist) in 1882, however, extracting a mineral from brines was expensive and economically unprofitable.
Industrial production 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 methods for the extraction of raw crystals 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 weight ion exchange resins are used to extract the raw material.
However, it is not used in Russia, since it does not make it possible to extract all iodine from raw materials and leaves a significant amount of it in the waste.
Innovative techniques V. Ganyaeva
Recently , Professor V. Ganyaev developed a unique technology for the extraction of iodine from mineral water at the Tyumen Oil and Gas University . In the summer of 2016, a special installation was created, and today it is successfully tested.
According to scientists, the new technology is not only environmentally friendly, but also more economically viable; chloride compounds and brines of sulfuric acid are not used here. When using it, the amount of extracted raw mineral will be 24 g per 1 liter of concentrate.
So when asked about 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 associated oil production brines.
How is medical iodine produced?
Today we are well-known antiseptic - alcohol 5 percent iodine, the use is getting less and less. He was replaced by drugs where iodine is used in conjunction with starch.
If we consider the question of whether there is a difference in the production of technical iodine and medical, then we should pay attention to the following.
- In the production of raw 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 combining raw crystals with other substances: water, alcohols, ethers.
Hence the conclusion: initially, iodine crystals are not divided into medical and technical - 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 a well-known antiseptic vial, there is only iodine and ethyl alcohol, while, for example, drugs for treating hyperthyroidism will be 2 orders of magnitude more expensive. They contain many other components.