Sciencemadness Discussion Board

chemicals the body produces/excretes

jeantoma - 29-3-2011 at 02:25

I'm a master student in product design. Not much knowledge in chemistry :)
For my master thesis i'm interessted in the chemicals the body produces/excretes.
I am specially interested in chemicals that can produce cristal / solid / paste material.
And I look for some SIMPLE way to collect / precipitate / ... those chemicals.

My questions are:
-Do you know any other chemical that could be in any interest?
-Do you know a simple method of collecting them?

What I know so far:
-casein precipatate from milk ( therefore human milk) and can produce a plastic like matter after addition of citric acid.
-urea from urine can produce cristal.
(urea cristal grown by artist
http://benoitraimbault.com/blog/gerda-steiner-jorg-lenzlinge... )

That's all for the moment. If you have anything for me I would be very interessted.

Regards,

Thomas

Bot0nist - 29-3-2011 at 19:16

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skatole">Skatole or 3-methylindole</a>

"Skatole or 3-methylindole is a mildly toxic white crystalline organic compound belonging to the indole family. It occurs naturally in feces (it is produced from tryptophan in the mammalian digestive tract), and coal tar, and has a strong fecal odor." - Wikipedia.


Also, I suppose if one wanted to they could isolate the gasses present in flatus.

There is also many interesting components in human saliva. Even an experimental pain killer.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saliva#Contents">Saliva</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiorphin">Opiorphin</a>




[Edited on 30-3-2011 by Bot0nist]

jeantoma - 30-3-2011 at 00:46

Thanks for the input. I'll look into that.

What about chemical that can become hard.
From which one can grow cristal.

I was thinking of kidney stone.

Bot0nist - 30-3-2011 at 13:13

I'm sure skatole can be crystallized. What about sodium chloride, or the calcium compounds from bones.

Calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate are the usual crystals that kidney stones are made of. You may have a hard time extracting these in sufficient amounts to grow good crystals from urine.

jeantoma - 30-3-2011 at 13:34

Thx

Well lets say it is more about the theory.

What about :

-Chitin in nails
-Melamine (or other substance) in hair
-blood...

Any idea around that.

phlogiston - 30-3-2011 at 15:24

You need to specify the boundaries of your question a bit more.

Some questions to help you do that:

1. Does 'the body' need to stay alive?
If not, there are a lot of useful materials. calcium phosphate (bone), gelatin (from collagen), fat, etc.

2. Does it need to be a pure compound?
If not, things like 'protein' or 'lipids' are very easy to isolate from blood. (respectively by precipitation with (for instance) methanol, and extraction (by, for instance, a mixture of chloroform and methanol).

3. Is quantity important?
I guess you can crystallize a small amount of sodium chloride from sweat. After excersize you can feel the crystals on your skin. Lysozyme from tears also comes to mind.

4. Define 'simple'
Is hydrolysis of hair to obtain amino acids such as cysteine considered simple enough?

5. Are you talking about the -human- body specifically? Or are animals also ok? How about plants?

jeantoma - 31-3-2011 at 00:19

Hello phlogiston,

1. Does 'the body' need to stay alive?
Yes, the body need to stay alive.
The "worst" that can happen is to collect a small quantity of blood. (Intrusive method)

2. Does it need to be a pure compound?
No. What I need is to get (very) small amount of building material from though substance.It can be a plastic like substance. A solid such as crsital. Probably there is other kind of solid but I don't have the knowledge to describe them.

3. Is quantity important?
Quantity (as well as finacial concern) are not what matters.
But I should know the amount available (if that make sense)

4. Define 'simple'
I don't know. I need to get through the process of hydrolyse to see if I consider it complex.
I'd like to keep it at an amateur level.

5. Are you talking about the -human- body specifically? Or are animals also ok? How about plants?
i'm interessted in the human body.
Yes about the human body.
But in this context the human body is not really different from that of domesticated mammals, which were sources of some materials and chemicals mainly before the petrochemical era. Then an old technical encyclopedia showing the chemical composition and uses of those chemicals could be helpfull. Or some insights from some of you.

jeantoma - 31-3-2011 at 01:01

Hydrolyse is perfectly do-able. It's allright, simple enought.

[Edited on 31-3-2011 by jeantoma]

cyanureeves - 31-3-2011 at 05:13

salt. remember that sweaty kid who hads that white chalky ring on the back of his shirt in the summer?dry eye matter in the mornings,you can cut glass with the stuff i produce.earwax? cataracts are actually produced to protect an old sensitive eye, probably so we can rely more on the waning hearing.callouses?bunions are also calcium deposits formed like a pearl in an oyster. you will need an xray pic for bunions. damn i'm old!

GreenD - 7-4-2011 at 19:25
Quote:

The discovery of phosphorus is credited to the German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669, although other chemists might have discovered phosphorus around the same time.[22] Brand experimented with urine, which contains considerable quantities of dissolved phosphates from normal metabolism.[4] Working in Hamburg, Brand attempted to create the fabled philosopher's stone through the distillation of some salts by evaporating urine, and in the process produced a white material that glowed in the dark and burned brilliantly.


ALOT of chemicals are excreted in urine. I cannot tell you how many, but nearly every chemical that you use in your brain or in your blood will exit through urine (after some metabolism).

Even DMT is found in human urine.

jon - 10-4-2011 at 20:25

ummm semen lots of semen

Random - 15-4-2011 at 09:28

Actually, from human semen can be isolated spermine phosphate.

Here is a procedure if someone has arable land:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1259515/pdf/bioc...

jon - 16-4-2011 at 19:04

no shit so we can produce buckets of cum to throw to those below us at the mezzanine at the opera show, i'm all ears!!!

that would make such a popular reality show we could call it "you've been skeeted!"
great lets do this!


[Edited on 17-4-2011 by jon]