Alcohol


 * Basic Facts:**

Alcohol is classifed as a depressant, which is an organic compound found in the hydroxyl group. Alcholic beverages undergo a fermentation process that causes the alcohol to produce the effects it does after consumption. It can be fermented from corn, potatoes, cactus and several other fruits or grains. The fermentation process is a reaction that occurs after an aging process happens. The liquid is aged in a barrel or some form of container and begins to ferment into an alcoholic beverage. Alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxyl functional group (OH) is bound to a Carbon atom. Many substances, particularly sugars, (glucose and sucrose) contain hydroxyl function groups. The most commonly used alcohol is ethanol ( C 2 H 5 OH). Alcohols have an odor that is often described as "biting" in the nose. Ethanol is a sweeter smell (fruit) odor than other alcohols.

Methyl Alcohol (methanol) is the simplest alcohol used and is formed by the distillation of wood. It is also extremely toxic and can be fatal. (CH 3 OH The first alcohol (today known as ethyl alcohol) was discovered by the tenth-century Persian alchemist al-Razi.


 * Uses:**
 * Rubbing alcohol can also be used to clean/disinfect minor cuts and burns, keeping them disinfected. Also used on earrings and even to sterilize objects.
 * Alcohols can be used as a beverage (ethanol only), as fuel and for many scientific, medical, and industrial utilities. Ethanol in the form of alcoholic beverages has been consumed by humans since pre-historic times. A 50% v/v solution of ethylene glycol in water is commonly used as an antifreeze.





Some alcohols, mainly ethanol and methanol, can be used as an alcohol fuel. Fuel performance can be increased in forced induction internal combustion engines by injecting alcohol into the air intake after the turbocharger or supercharger has pressurized the air. This cools the pressurized air, providing a denser air charge, which allows for more fuel, and therefore more power. Alcohols have applications in industry and science as reagents or solvents. Because of its relatively low toxicity compared with other alcohols and ability to dissolve non-polar substances, ethanol can be used as a solvent in medical drugs, perfumes, and vegetable essences such as vanilla. In organic synthesis, alcohols serve as versatile intermediates. Ethanol can be used as an antiseptic to disinfect the skin before injections are given, often along with iodine. Ethanol-based soaps are becoming common in restaurants and are convenient because they do not require drying due to the volatility of the compound. Alcohol is also used as a preservative for specimens. Alcohol gels have become common as hand sanitizers.

Alcohols have an odor that is often described as “biting” and as “hanging” in the nasal passages. Ethanol has a slightly sweeter (or more fruit-like) odor than the other alcohols. In general, the hydroxyl group makes the alcohol molecule polar. Those groups can form hydrogen bonds to one another and to other compounds (except in certain large molecules where the hydroxyl is protected by steric hindrance of adjacent groups[6]). This hydrogen bonding means that alcohols can be used as protic solvents. Two opposing solubility trends in alcohols are: the tendency of the polar OH to promote solubility in water, and the tendency of the carbon chain to resist it. Thus, methanol, ethanol, and propanol are miscible in water because the hydroxyl group wins out over the short carbon chain. Butanol, with a four-carbon chain, is moderately soluble because of a balance between the two trends. Alcohols of five or more carbons (pentanol and higher) are effectively insoluble in water because of the hydrocarbon chain's dominance. All simple alcohols are miscible in organic solvents. Because of hydrogen bonding, alcohols tend to have higher boiling points than comparable hydrocarbons and ethers. The boiling point of the alcohol ethanol is 78.29 °C, compared to 69 °C for the hydrocarbon hexane (a common constituent of gasoline), and 34.6 °C for diethyl ether.

Hungover?
Excessive consumption of ethanol may cause a delayed effect that is called hangover. Various factors contribute to it, including the toxication of ethanol to acetaldehyde, the direct toxic effects and toxication of impurities called congeners, and dehydration. The hangover starts after the euphoric effects of ethanol have subsided, typically in the night and morning after alcoholic drinks were consumed. However, the blood alcohol concentration may still be substantial and above the limit imposed for automobile drivers and operators of heavy equipment. The effects of a hangover subside over time. Various treatments to cure hangover have been suggested, many of them pseudoscientific.

Ethanol is metabolized into energy in the liver. In the liver, the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase oxidizes ethanol into acetaldehyde, which is then further oxidized into harmless acetic acid by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Acetic acid is esterified with coenzyme A to produce acetyl CoA. Acetyl CoA carries the acetyl moiety into the citric acid cycle, which produces energy by oxidizing the acetyl moiety into carbon dioxide. Acetyl CoA can also be used for biosynthesis. Acetyl CoA is the energy-carrying intermediate common to the metabolism of sugars and fats; it is the product of glycolysis, the breakdown of glucose. When compared to other alcohols, ethanol is only slightly toxic, with a lowest known lethal dose in humans of 1400 mg/kg (about 20 shots for a 100 kg person), and an LD50 of 9000 mg/kg (oral, rat). Nevertheless, accidental overdosing of alcoholic drinks, especially those containing a high percentage of alcohol, is risky, especially for women, lightweight persons, and children. These people have a smaller quantity of water in their bodies, so that the alcohol is less diluted. A blood alcohol concentration of 50 to 100 mg/dL may be considered legal drunkenness (laws vary by jurisdiction). The threshold of effects is at 22 mg/dL.[65] In the human body, ethanol affects the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors and produces a depressant (neurochemical inhibitory) effect. Ethanol is similar to other sedative-hypnotics such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines both in its effect on the GABAA receptor, although its pharmacological profile is not identical. It has anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, hypnotic, and sedative actions similar to many other sedative-hypnotic drugs. Ethanol is also cross-tolerant with benzodiazepines and barbiturates.[66] Alcohols are toxicated into the corresponding aldehydes and then into the corresponding carboxylic acids. These metabolic products cause a poisoning and acidosis. In the case of alcohols other than ethanol, the aldehydes and carboxylic acids are poisonous, and the acidosis can be lethal. In contrast, fatalities from ethanol are mainly found in extreme doses associated with the induction of unconsciousness or chronic addiction (alcoholism). There have been many theories about how to cure a hangover.



**Fun Facts about Alcohol**

 * 1) The younger you are when you start drinking, the more likely you are to have a problem with alcohol.
 * 2) College students spend more on alcohol than on textbooks.
 * 3) One 12 ounce beer = 5 ounce glass of wine = 1 ½ shots of 80 proof liquor.
 * 4) How alcohol affects you depends on:
 * how much alcohol is consumed
 * the time period in which it is consumed
 * how much food is in the stomach
 * body weight
 * 1) Alcohol is a depressant.
 * 2) When someone has a problem, they follow certain patterns:
 * lie to sober friends
 * hide it from sober friends
 * party more with drinking friends
 * deny they have a problem
 * 1) The body takes about ½ hour to feel the effects of alcohol. If you drink before that time, you may drink too much.
 * 2) Alcohol poisoning occurs when you drink too much alcohol too fast, which can lead to coma or even death.
 * 3) The worst thing to do when a person has had too much to drink is to leave them alone or lying down. They need to be kept awake and moving-- and they need medical help.
 * 4) Alcohol-related accidents are the #1 killer of teens.
 * 5) 1.4 million teens a year are injured in some way through an alcohol related accident.
 * 6) A BAL (Blood Alcohol Level) of .1 means you have 12 times more likelihood of being in an accident.
 * 7) A BAL of .2 means you have 60 times more likelihood of being in an accident.
 * 8) Binge drinking can lead to permanent brain damage; coma, then death, can happen in less than an hour.
 * 9) Some of the social effects of alcohol are: unprotected sex, pregnancy, STD's, date rape.
 * 10) Up to 2/3 of date rape cases involve alcohol.
 * 11) There is nothing that will sober you up except time.
 * 12) It takes approximately 1 hour for each drink to be used by the body.

The higher percentage of alcohol that a drink contains, the faster the drink will affect a person. Rubbing alcohol is not for people to drink, if someone does drink it they would get very very sick, so don't attempt to drink hand sanitizer.

Alcohol can be a very bad thing if you drink too much and/or too often, its fun to be a little buzzed from alcohol, but beyond that point it could get dangerous, and you will end up having to pay a very high price as shown below.

Alcohol causes liver damage! here are some symtoms:
 * You bruise more easily
 * Jaundice (yellow in the eyes and skin)
 * Weight loss
 * You notice you are bleeding more with minor injuries
 * You experience a loss of appetite
 * Your abdomen area has accumulated fluids

(this property allows it to be **distilled** -- by heating a water and alcohol mixture, the alcohol evaporates first).
 * **Alcoho**l is a clear liquid at room temperature.
 * Alcohol is less dense and evaporates at a lower temperature than water
 * Alcohol dissolves easily in water.
 * Alcohol is flammable (so flammable that it can be used as a fuel).


 * Alcohol can be made by three different methods:**
 * **Fermentation** of fruit or grain mixtures. This is often followed by **distillation** of fermented fruit or grain mixtures (Spirits such as whiskey, rum, vodka and gin are distilled.)
 * **Chemical modification of fossil fuels** such as oil, natural gas or coal (industrial alcohol)
 * **Chemical combination of hydrogen with carbon monoxide** (methanol or wood alcohol)

The alcohol found in alcoholic beverages is **ethyl alcohol** (ethanol). The molecular structure of ethanol looks like this:

In this structure, **C** is carbon, **H** is hydrogen, **O** is oxygen and the hyphens are the chemical bonds between the atoms. For purposes of clarity, the bonds between the three hydrogen atoms and the left carbon atom are not shown. The OH (O-H) group on the molecule is what gives it the specific chemical properties of an alcohol. For the remainder of this article, **when we say "alcohol," we mean ethanol.** You will not find pure alcohol in most drinks; drinking pure alcohol can be deadly because it only takes a few ounces of pure alcohol to quickly raise the blood alcohol level into the danger zone.
 * H H3 C - C - O - H H**

>> Getting the Facts Just about everyone knows that the legal drinking age throughout the United States is 21. But according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol. >> Deciding whether to drink is a personal decision that we each eventually have to make. This article provides some information on alcohol, including how it affects your body, so you can make an educated choice. >> What Is Alcohol? Alcohol is created when grains, fruits, or vegetables are ** fermented **. Fermentation is a process that uses yeast or bacteria to change the sugars in the food into alcohol. Fermentation is used to produce many necessary items — everything from cheese to medications. Alcohol has different forms and can be used as a cleaner, an antiseptic, or a sedative. >> So if alcohol is a natural product, why do teens need to be concerned about drinking it? When people drink alcohol, it's absorbed into their bloodstream. From there, it affects the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), which controls virtually all body functions. Because experts now know that the human brain is still developing during our teens, scientists are researching the effects drinking alcohol can have on the teen brain. >>
 * **The concentration of alcohol** in the beverage - The greater the concentration, the faster the absorption.
 * **The type of drink** - Carbonated beverages tend to speed up the absorption of alcohol.
 * **Whether the stomach is full or empty** - Food slows down alcohol absorption.
 * Once absorbed by the bloodstream, the alcohol leaves the body in three ways:
 * The kidney eliminates 5 percent of alcohol in the urine.
 * The **lungs** exhale 5 percent of alcohol, which can be detected by breathalyzer devices.


 * liver** chemically breaks down the remaining alcohol into acetic acid.

__ The science of beer: __ For all you'd ever want to know about beer visit: []

 Beer is the juice of grain skilfully treated: it is liquid bread. The first people to make beers as we know them today were the Sumerians, who cultivated cereal grains specifically for brewing and drank beer to honour their gods. Many cultures have seen beer as a gift from God. There are many components that go into making a beer that involves chemistry. This article, [] really bring the actually science and history of beer making to light 