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How is medicinal nitroglycerin different from the explosive kind?
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Muskan Thind
How is medicinal nitroglycerin different from the explosive kind?
Chemically there is no difference between the nitroglycerin used in dynamite and that used in heart medication.
In its pure form, nitroglycerin is a contact explosive, with physical shock causing it to explode, and it degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes nitroglycerin highly dangerous to transport or use. In its undiluted form, it is one of the world's most powerful explosives.
The difference between nitroglycerin as used in dynamite and that used as medicine (non-explosive) is concentration.
There is very little nitroglycerin in a nitrocap tablet (usually .3 -.5 mg). You would need about 3 thousand tablets to have enough for even a small blasting cap (about one gram).
Getting 3000 of these would be expensive, not to mention almost impossible to do. Even then, there are many other inactive ingredients in each tablet. You would have to find a way to separate the nitroglycerin in each tablet from the rest of the tablet contents.
Chemically there is no difference between the nitroglycerin used in dynamite and that used in heart medication.
In its pure form, nitroglycerin is a contact explosive, with physical shock causing it to explode, and it degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes nitroglycerin highly dangerous to transport or use. In its undiluted form, it is one of the world's most powerful explosives.
The difference between nitroglycerin as used in dynamite and that used as medicine (non-explosive) is concentration.
There is very little nitroglycerin in a nitrocap tablet (usually .3 -.5 mg). You would need about 3 thousand tablets to have enough for even a small blasting cap (about one gram).
Getting 3000 of these would be expensive, not to mention almost impossible to do. Even then, there are many other inactive ingredients in each tablet. You would have to find a way to separate the nitroglycerin in each tablet from the rest of the tablet contents.
Since I used to work for a pharmaceutical house (Rand Laboratories) and later for Hercules who made nitroglycerine, I feel that I might add a word or two. As Raul Hernandez says, chemically there is no difference. BUT (NOTE CAPS) The origin is what makes the difference. The NG used in the explosive industry is made in a Biazzi Nitrator which processes glycerine, nitric acid and sulfuric acid into nitroglycerine and spent acid. The NG used in nitroglycerine pills is manufactured in a pharmaceutical laboratory so that it meets USP and FDA requirements. Chemically, they are identical, but the material made for human consumption has a paper trail proving its safety for human consumption. The material made in a Biazzi only has to go bang! (Actually, BOOM!, but that is just a matter of semantics.)
The output of a Biazzi is measured in hundreds of pounds, that from the lab in a few grams. NG from whatever source has a bad habit of giving you a NASTY headache if it contacts your skin or you breath it vapor on a hot day. The vapor has a deceptively sweet odor and you could easily enjoy it unless you realized what it was and left immediately. I never got one, but a buddy who did said that it couldn’t possibly be any worse than a migraine. Since it is a vasodilator, there is no real cure except time. They say coffee helps, but he said that couldn’t make coffee strong enough to stop the pain!
Since you brought up the subject, there is nothing like standing next to 1,500 pounds of NG and reflecting that if it shot, they would not dig a grave for me but put up a tombstone. The tombstone would not say, “Here lies Frank Duncan” but would say, “In memory of Frank Duncan.” Maybe they might even throw in a spoonful of dirt from the bottom of the crater to get a few of my cells. Or not.
Since I used to work for a pharmaceutical house (Rand Laboratories) and later for Hercules who made nitroglycerine, I feel that I might add a word or two. As Raul Hernandez says, chemically there is no difference. BUT (NOTE CAPS) The origin is what makes the difference. The NG used in the explosive industry is made in a Biazzi Nitrator which processes glycerine, nitric acid and sulfuric acid into nitroglycerine and spent acid. The NG used in nitroglycerine pills is manufactured in a pharmaceutical laboratory so that it meets USP and FDA requirements. Chemically, they are identical, but the material made for human consumption has a paper trail proving its safety for human consumption. The material made in a Biazzi only has to go bang! (Actually, BOOM!, but that is just a matter of semantics.)
The output of a Biazzi is measured in hundreds of pounds, that from the lab in a few grams. NG from whatever source has a bad habit of giving you a NASTY headache if it contacts your skin or you breath it vapor on a hot day. The vapor has a deceptively sweet odor and you could easily enjoy it unless you realized what it was and left immediately. I never got one, but a buddy who did said that it couldn’t possibly be any worse than a migraine. Since it is a vasodilator, there is no real cure except time. They say coffee helps, but he said that couldn’t make coffee strong enough to stop the pain!
Since you brought up the subject, there is nothing like standing next to 1,500 pounds of NG and reflecting that if it shot, they would not dig a grave for me but put up a tombstone. The tombstone would not say, “Here lies Frank Duncan” but would say, “In memory of Frank Duncan.” Maybe they might even throw in a spoonful of dirt from the bottom of the crater to get a few of my cells. Or not.
Chemically there is no difference between the nitroglycerin used in dynamite and that used in heart medication.
In its pure form, nitroglycerin is a contact explosive, with physical shock causing it to explode, and it degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes nitroglycerin highly dangerous to transport or use. In its undiluted form, it is one of the world's most powerful explosives.
The difference between nitroglycerin as used in dynamite and that used as medicine (non-explosive) is concentration.
There is very little nitroglycerin in a nitrocap tablet (usually .3 -.5 mg). You would need about 3 thousand tablets to have enough for even a small blasting cap (about one gram).
Getting 3000 of these would be expensive, not to mention almost impossible to do. Even then, there are many other inactive ingredients in each tablet. You would have to find a way to separate the nitroglycerin in each tablet from the rest of the tablet contents.
Chemically there is no difference between the nitroglycerin used in dynamite and that used in heart medication.
In its pure form, nitroglycerin is a contact explosive, with physical shock causing it to explode, and it degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes nitroglycerin highly dangerous to transport or use. In its undiluted form, it is one of the world's most powerful explosives.
The difference between nitroglycerin as used in dynamite and that used as medicine (non-explosive) is concentration.
There is very little nitroglycerin in a nitrocap tablet (usually .3 -.5 mg). You would need about 3 thousand tablets to have enough for even a small blasting cap (about one gram).
Getting 3000 of these would be expensive, not to mention almost impossible to do. Even then, there are many other inactive ingredients in each tablet. You would have to find a way to separate the nitroglycerin in each tablet from the rest of the tablet contents.
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Since I used to work for a pharmaceutical house (Rand Laboratories) and later for Hercules who made nitroglycerine, I feel that I might add a word or two. As Raul Hernandez says, chemically there is no difference. BUT (NOTE CAPS) The origin is what makes the difference. The NG used in the explosive industry is made in a Biazzi Nitrator which processes glycerine, nitric acid and sulfuric acid into nitroglycerine and spent acid. The NG used in nitroglycerine pills is manufactured in a pharmaceutical laboratory so that it meets USP and FDA requirements. Chemically, they are identical, but the material made for human consumption has a paper trail proving its safety for human consumption. The material made in a Biazzi only has to go bang! (Actually, BOOM!, but that is just a matter of semantics.)
The output of a Biazzi is measured in hundreds of pounds, that from the lab in a few grams. NG from whatever source has a bad habit of giving you a NASTY headache if it contacts your skin or you breath it vapor on a hot day. The vapor has a deceptively sweet odor and you could easily enjoy it unless you realized what it was and left immediately. I never got one, but a buddy who did said that it couldn’t possibly be any worse than a migraine. Since it is a vasodilator, there is no real cure except time. They say coffee helps, but he said that couldn’t make coffee strong enough to stop the pain!
Since you brought up the subject, there is nothing like standing next to 1,500 pounds of NG and reflecting that if it shot, they would not dig a grave for me but put up a tombstone. The tombstone would not say, “Here lies Frank Duncan” but would say, “In memory of Frank Duncan.” Maybe they might even throw in a spoonful of dirt from the bottom of the crater to get a few of my cells. Or not.
Since I used to work for a pharmaceutical house (Rand Laboratories) and later for Hercules who made nitroglycerine, I feel that I might add a word or two. As Raul Hernandez says, chemically there is no difference. BUT (NOTE CAPS) The origin is what makes the difference. The NG used in the explosive industry is made in a Biazzi Nitrator which processes glycerine, nitric acid and sulfuric acid into nitroglycerine and spent acid. The NG used in nitroglycerine pills is manufactured in a pharmaceutical laboratory so that it meets USP and FDA requirements. Chemically, they are identical, but the material made for human consumption has a paper trail proving its safety for human consumption. The material made in a Biazzi only has to go bang! (Actually, BOOM!, but that is just a matter of semantics.)
The output of a Biazzi is measured in hundreds of pounds, that from the lab in a few grams. NG from whatever source has a bad habit of giving you a NASTY headache if it contacts your skin or you breath it vapor on a hot day. The vapor has a deceptively sweet odor and you could easily enjoy it unless you realized what it was and left immediately. I never got one, but a buddy who did said that it couldn’t possibly be any worse than a migraine. Since it is a vasodilator, there is no real cure except time. They say coffee helps, but he said that couldn’t make coffee strong enough to stop the pain!
Since you brought up the subject, there is nothing like standing next to 1,500 pounds of NG and reflecting that if it shot, they would not dig a grave for me but put up a tombstone. The tombstone would not say, “Here lies Frank Duncan” but would say, “In memory of Frank Duncan.” Maybe they might even throw in a spoonful of dirt from the bottom of the crater to get a few of my cells. Or not.
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