North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

SLS is an ester, a molecule usually made by combining an acid (in this case sulfuric acid) with an alcohol (in this case lauryl alcohol).   Scent compounds that we regard as ‘flavor’ are esters.  Simple esters are, by nature, easily biodegradable.

 

Sulfuric acid occurs naturally and can be made by simple processes.  Lauryl acid is a major component of coconut oil, about 45% by weight.  Oxygenation (redox, a common naturally occurring process) of that fatty acid produces lauryl alcohol, which reacts with sulfuric acid to make the compound sodium lauryl sulfate; well, it makes lauryl sulfate, but then sodium carbonate is added to neutralize the pH, and you get SLS.  SLS is used widely, including as a foaming and dispersing agent in shampoo and toothpaste.

 

There is an internet letter and website ‘explaining’ and ‘alerting’ us to the danger of mixing coconut oil and alcohol – pina colada poisoning???  The email talks about the related “sodium laureth sulfate, or simply SLS.”  The person who wrote this should have taken the time to pass chemistry, or at have learned to spell abbreviations: SLS is the lauryl product, SLES is the laureth.  They are two distinct chemicals, so the mail begins in deep confusion.

  

As far as safety, one should probably not apply 100% SLS to the skin or eyes, as it would be a strong irritant (as would lemon juice or vinegar). 

 

Toothpastes warn against swallowing too much due to the presence  of three common ingredients: SLS, fluoride, and sorbitol (those last two are entirely natural), because swallowing too much can lead to an upset stomach and diarrhea.  For that same reason, one should rinse dishes thoroughly – dish soaps contain SLS, which can make a tummy upset.  There’s no link between SLS and cancer, and because it’s found in shampoo, toothpaste, and even one brand of candy, it has been investigated rather thoroughly.  The email claims that the chances of getting cancer were 1 in 8000 in the 1980s, and is 1 in 3 now, implying that it must be the shampoo that’s killing us.  But the odds of getting some type of cancer sometime in one’s life were about 1 in 3 in 1980, and about 1 in 2 now; the reason for the rise is not considered to be increased incidence as much as increased and earlier detection, combined with longer lives. 

 

SNOPES thinks that the writers have confused SLS, which is in shampoo now, with nitrosamines, found in some shampoo formulas 35 years ago.  Remember, the writers don’t know the difference between SLS, SLES, and Shinola.  A source of nitrosamines in shampoos was ethanolamine lauryl sulfates, and the problem wasn’t the lauryl or the sulfate or the ethanol – it was the amine.   SLS is a whole different molecule, with no amines, nothing that could contribute to the formation of nitrosamines.  Where there were amines, in SLS there is sodium. 

 

There’s zero evidence that SLS is harmful, and the logical breaks in trying to reach a contrary  and alarmist conclusion are, at best, stunningly sloppy, and go in the wrong direction from the very first step.

 

~ Stephen

Your friendly neighborhood biochemist

 

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lon J. Rombough
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 8:18 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] lemon juice substitute

 

Trifoliate orange fruits will give about one teaspoon of juice - the rest of the pulp is full of seeds, and the fruits also contain a bitter resin that quickly gums up anything it contacts. Cut a fruit and you have to scrape the resin off the knife blade.
At one time there was a lot of work done in trying to hybridize trifoliate orange with other citrus to get cold hardy citrus. Some selections weren't bad, but none were very good. I had a hybrid of pommelo with Poncirus trifoliata that looked like a grapefruit with lots of seeds and wasn't too bad for juice but wouldn't go as a grapefruit substitute.
The main problem with most of the hybrids is that they produce all nucellar seedlings. That is, the seedlings come from mother tissue, not from a union of sperm and egg, so it's very hard to get past the initial hybrid to select out the undesirable traits.
Go to the NAFEX library and look up the late Major Collins' work on hardy citrus.
-Lon Rombough
NEW grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
For all other things grape, http://www.vitisearch.com
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/
On Nov 28, 2008, at 7:23 PM, Stephen Sadler wrote:

One could also try growing trifoliate orange, an interesting-looking plant that’s extremely cold hardy for a citrus.  The coldest extreme I’ve heard mentioned for it is 20 below; of course, I wouldn’t count on that… There are a few citrus that will survive zero degrees, but I think we’re looking for something even more cold tolerant.  Trifoliate orange is sour and a bit bitter, as I recall; and any citrus is sour when underripe (I expect and welcome corrections whenever wrong, btw).  I hope someone here might have some experience with it as more than just a dwarfing rootstock.

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