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The chemical compound sodium alginate is the sodium salt of alginic acid. Its empirical chemical formula is NaC6H7O6. Its form as a gum, when extracted from the cell walls of brown algae, is used by the foods industry to increase viscosity and as an emulsifier. It is also used in indigestion tablets and the preparation of dental impressions. Sodium alginate has no discernible flavor.
Another major use of sodium alginate is reactive dye printing, where it is used in the textile industry.
Uses
A major application for sodium alginate is as thickener for reactive dyestuffs (such as the Procion cotton-reactive dyes) in textile screen-printing and carpet jet-printing. Alginates do not react with these dyes and wash out easily, unlike starch-based thickeners.
Sodium alginate is a good chelator for pulling radioactive toxins such as iodine-131 and strontium-90 from the body which have taken the place of their non-radioactive counterparts.12 It is also used in immobilizing enzymes by inclusion.
As a food additive, sodium alginate is used especially in the production of gel-like foods. For example, bakers' "Chellies" are often gelled alginate "jam." Also, the pimento stuffing in prepared cocktail olives is usually injected as a slurry at the same time that the stone is ejected; the slurry is subsequently set by immersing the olive in a solution of a calcium salt which causes rapid gelation by electrostatic cross-linking. A similar process can be used to make "chunks" of everything from cat food through "reformed" ham or fish to "fruit" pieces for pies. It has the E-number 401.
References
- ^ Sutton, A., Harrison, G. E., Carr, T. E., and Barltrop, D. Reduction in the absorption of dietary strontium in children by an alginate derivative. Br.J.Radiol. 44[523], 567. 1971
- ^ Sutton, A., Harrison, B. E., Carr, T. E., and Barltrop, D. Reduction in the absorption of dietary strontium in children by an alginate derivative. Int.J.Radiat.Biol.Relat Stud.Phys.Chem.Med. 19[1], 79-85. 1971
External links
- article Wired on Easy Cheese, describing sodium alginate
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 8 November 2008, at 22:55.
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