Production Techniques and Chemistry > Colloidal Silver Production
Alternative to using Gelatin as capping agent for Colloidal Silver
PeterXXL:
I've so far used Gelatin as the best choice as capping agent when making colloidal silver that is used orally. Gelatin is an animal product, and as lots of people are vegetarians or vegans, there must be options. And I have looked at the following alternatives...
- Pectin
- Carrageenan
- Agar (agar-agar)
- Alginic acid (and its salts - alginates)
Pectin, a polysaccharide that comes from fruits, is actually used as a capping agent ( for instance: http://www.scopemed.org/?jft=36&ft=36-1422348209 )
Carrageenan is also a polysaccharide, which comes from red seaweed, and is also used as a capping agent ( for instance: http://eprints.utm.my/33882/ )
Agar is derived from the polysaccharide agarrose, which is extracted from red algae, and is also sometimes used ( for instance: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852411017032 )
Alginic acid is an anionic polysaccharide that comes from the cell walls of brown algae. Different alginates seem to be used as capping agents ( for instance: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925400511000426?np=y )
They all have in common that they consists of polysaccharides (long chain of mono-saccharrides) and are jelly-like when absorbing water (similar to gelatin), so they should also suit as good capping agents like gelatin. The question is how well they withstand the gastric acid compared to gelatin.
I think that this is something that we should investigate and try out.
kephra:
Go right ahead.
fishing4fun:
This is very interesting if you do proceed in trying any of these please post your results.
I was even thinking about sunflower lecithin but that was just a thought and i have not investigated it any further then just a thought, one thing i would say about lecithin is that the taste is completely bad as if you were eating rubber.
SanchoPanza:
I wondered about pectin as a reducer, never thought of capping though.
If you ever try pectin for capping, I'd be curious to see if it acts as a reducer, maybe on a small sub batch of IS?
I would volunteer to do that, but I'm not ready for qualified for capping experiments yet.
I only recently earned my Maltose badge, but If I get to the store before Peter, I'll try Pectin as a reducer too.
Thanks for the links Peter.
-Sancho
PeterXXL:
Yes, I will try to buy them all and then make some tests, which I share. I also await an order of Pepsin, which is necessary to prepare simulated gastric fluid. I should have it within a few working days, and will then start testing different colloidal silver against simulated gastric fluid to start with.
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