Sweet relief: a candy hardener, a soap-foamer and a stopgap wine ingredient can soothe your pain.
Every month Wired's chemist Dr Bibiana Campos Seijo deconstructs an everyday product. She is the editor of Chemistry World, the flagship magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Ingredients
Ibuprofen
Croscarmellose sodium
Sodium lauryl sulfate
Sodium citrate
Stearic acid
Colloidal anhydrous silica
Carmellose sodium
Calcium sulfate dehydrate
Acacia (spray dried)
Sucrose
Titanium dioxide
Carnauba wax powder
Purified water
Ibuprofen
Nurofen's active ingredient was discovered by Boots the Chemist in the 60s. An anti-inflammatory, it acts on the prostaglandin group of hormones.
Sodium citrate
The sodium salt of citric acid, sodium citrate can also be used as an emulsifier for oils when making cheese, allowing it to melt without becoming too greasy.
Stearic acid
Stearic acid is a saturated fatty acid with an 18-carbon chain (it's also known as octadecanoic acid). It can be found in soaps, oil pastels and hard sweets, where it acts as a hardener. In this case, however, its main function is to act as a lubricant to prevent the ingredients from clumping together and from sticking to the tablet punches.
Sodium lauryl sulfate
An anionic surfactant, emulsifier and foamer, this is used in products such as soap, shampoo, bubble baths and toothpastes.
Titanium dioxide
Used as a pigment, it can be found in paints and foodstuffs such as cheese, icings and toppings. It can also absorb light and so acts as a sunscreen.
Colloidal anhydrous silica
Used to aid powder flow when tablets are formed, this anti-caking agent works by coating the surface of the powder, thereby reducing inter-particle interactions. It was used as a wine-making agent in the second world war, when tannin was unavailable.
Carnauba wax powder
A coating agent extracted from Brazilian palm leaves, this powder is added to improve the tablet's appearance and make it durable.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
