MY FAMILY AND ME November 23, 2008

RIzUKA

last scholaship November 23, 2008

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Vitamin K (phylloquinone) is the one of coconut’s obstetrical. Both contain a functional naphthoquinone ring and an aliphatic side chain. Phylloquinone has a phytyl side chain. Vitamin K₂ (menaquinone). In menaquinone the side chain is composed of a varying number of isoprenoid residues. Vitamin K (K from “Koagulations-Vitamin” in German, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) denotes a group of lipophilic, hydrophobic vitamins that are needed for the posttranslational modification of certain proteins, mostly required for blood coagulation. Chemically they are 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives. Vitamin K₂ (menaquinone, menatetrenone) is normally produced by bacteria in the intestines, and dietary deficiency is extremely rare unless the intestines are heavily damaged or are unable to absorb the molecule.

All members of the vitamin K group of vitamins share a methylated naphthoquinone ring structure, and vary in the aliphatic side chain attached at the 3-position. Phylloquinone (also known as vitamin K₁) invariably contains in its side chain four isoprenoid residues, one of which is unsaturated. Menaquinones have side chains composed of a variable number of unsaturated isoprenoid residues; generally they are designated as MK-n, where n specifies the number of isoprenoids. It is generally accepted that the naphthoquinone is the functional group, so that the mechanism of action is similar for all K-vitamins. Substantial differences may be expected, however, with respect to intestinal absorption, transport, tissue distribution, and bio-availability. These differences are caused by the different lipophilicity of the various side chains, and by the different food matrices in which they occur.

Vitamin K is involved in the carboxylation of certain glutamate residues in proteins to form gamma-carboxyglutamate residues (abbreviated Gla-residues). The modified residues are situated within specific protein domains called Gla domains. Gla-residues are usually involved in binding calcium. The Gla-residues are essential for the biological activity of all known Gla-proteins. At this time 14 human proteins with Gla domains have been discovered, and they play key roles in the regulation of three physiological processes:

• Blood coagulation: (prothrombin (factor II), factors VII, IX, X, protein C, protein S and protein Z).
• Bone metabolism: osteocalcin, also called bone Gla-protein (BGP), and matrix gla protein (MGP).
• Vascular biology.

The U.S. Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for an Adequate Intake (AI) of Vitamin K for a 25-year old male is 120 micrograms/day. In 2002 it was found that to get maximum carboxilation of Osteocalcin, one would have to get 1000 mcg of Vitamin K1. Like other liposoluble vitamins [vitamins A, D, E], vitamin K is stored in the fat tissue of the human body and a chronic overdose of vitamin K can harm the body and lead to hypervitaminosis. No Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) has been set.

Vitamin K is found chiefly in leafy green vegetables, particularly the dark green ones such as spinach and kale; Brassica (e.g. cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts) are also high in Vitamin K as are some fruits such as avocado and kiwifruit. By way of reference, two tablespoons of parsley contain 153% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin K. Some vegetable oils, notably soybean, contain vitamin K, but at levels that would require relatively large caloric consumption to meet the USDA recommended levels Phylloquinone (vitamin K₁) is the major dietary form of vitamin K. Menaquinone-4 and Menaquinone-7 (vitamin K₂) are found in meat, eggs, dairy and natto. MK-4 is synthesized by animal tissues, the rest (mainly MK-7) are synthesized by bacteria during fermentation. In natto 0% of Vitamin K is from MK-4 and in cheese 2-7%.

Vitamin K-deficiency may occur by disturbed intestinal uptake (such as would occur in a bile duct obstruction), by therapeutic or accidental intake of vitamin K-antagonists or, very rarely, by nutritional vitamin K-deficiency. As a result, Gla-residues are inadequately formed and the Gla-proteins are insufficiently active. Lack of control of the three processes mentioned above may lead to the following: risk of massive, uncontrolled bleeding, cartilage calcification and severe malformation of developing bone, or deposition of insoluble calcium salts in the walls of arteries. The deposition of calcium in soft tissues, including arterial walls, is quite common, especially in those suffering from atherosclerosis, suggesting that Vitamin K deficiency is more common than previously thought. Menaquinone, but not phylloquinone, intake is associated with reduced risk of CHD mortality, all-cause mortality and severe aortic calcification.

In a cohort study in Germany (11319 men, mean follow-up time 8.6y), Menaquinone intake was associated with decreased incidence of advanced prostate cancer. Postmenopausal and elderly women in Thailand have high risk of Vitamin K₂ deficiency, comparing to the normal value of young, reproductive females. Current dosage recommendations for Vitamin K may be too low.

In some countries, injections of Vitamin K are routinely given to newborn babies. Vitamin K is used as prophylactic measure to prevent late-onset haemorrhagic disease (HDN). Since HDN is a relatively rare problem, many parents now choose for their babies not to have such an injection; most pediatricians, however, highly recommend the prophylactic dose for adequate protection.

In 1929, Danish scientist Henrik Dam investigated the role of cholesterol by feeding chickens a cholesterol-depleted diet. After several weeks, the animals developed hemorrhages and started bleeding. These defects could not be restored by adding purified cholesterol to the diet. It appeared that—together with the cholesterol—a second compound had been extracted from the food, and this compound was called the coagulation vitamin. The new vitamin received the letter K because the initial discoveries were reported in a German journal, in which it was designated as Koagulationsvitamin. Edward Adelbert Doisy of Saint Louis University did much of the research that led to the discovery of the structure and chemical nature of Vitamin K. Dam and Doisy shared the 1943 Nobel Prize for medicine for their work on Vitamin K. Several laboratories synthesized the compound in 1939.

For several decades the vitamin K-deficient chick model was the only method of quantitating vitamin K in various foods: the chicks were made vitamin K-deficient and subsequently fed with known amounts of vitamin K-containing food. The extent to which blood coagulation was restored by the diet was taken as a measure for its vitamin K content. Three groups of physicians independently found this: Biochemical Institute, University of Copenhagen (Dam and Johannes Glavind), University of Iowa Department of Pathology (Emory Warner, Kenneth Brinkhous, and Harry Pratt Smith), and the Mayo Clinic (Hugh Butt, Albert Snell, and Arnold Osterberg). The first published report of successful treatment with vitamin K of life-threatening hemorrhage in a jaundiced patient with prothrombin deficiency was made in 1938 by Smith, Warner, and Brinkhous.

The precise function of vitamin K was not discovered until 1974, when three laboratories (Stenflo et al., Nelsestuen et al., and Magnusson et al) isolated the vitamin K-dependent coagulation factor prothrombin (Factor II) from cows that received a high dose of a vitamin K antagonist, warfarin. It was shown that while warfarin-treated cows had a form of prothrombin that contained 10 glutamate amino acid residues near the amino terminus of this protein, the normal (untreated) cows contained 10 unusual residues which were chemically identified as gamma-carboxyglutamate, or Gla. The extra carboxyl group in Gla made clear that vitamin K plays a role in a carboxylation reaction during which Glu is converted into Gla.

The biochemistry of how Vitamin K is used to convert Glu to Gla has been elucidated over the past thirty years in academic laboratories throughout the world. Within the cell, Vitamin K undergoes electron reduction to a reduced form of Vitamin K (called Vitamin K hydroquinone) by the enzyme Vitamin K epoxide reductase (or VKOR). Another enzyme then oxidizes Vitamin K hydroquinone to allow carboxylation of Glu to Gla; this enzyme is called the gamma-glutamyl carboxylase or the Vitamin K-dependent carboxylase. The carboxylation reaction will only proceed if the carboxylase enzyme is able to oxidize Vitamin K hydroquinone to vitamin K epoxide at the same time; the carboxylation and epoxidation reactions are said to be coupled reactions. Vitamin K epoxide is then re-converted to Vitamin K by the Vitamin K epoxide reductase. These two enzymes comprise the so-called Vitamin K cycle. One of the reasons why Vitamin K is rarely deficient in a human diet is because Vitamin K is continually recycled in our cells.

Warfarin and other coumarin drugs block the action of the Vitamin K epoxide reductase. This results in decreased concentrations of Vitamin K and Vitamin K hydroquinone in the tissues, such that the carboxylation reaction catalyzed by the glutamyl carboxylase is inefficient. This results in the production of clotting factors with inadequate Gla. Without Gla on the amino termini of these factors, they no longer bind stably to the blood vessel endothelium and cannot activate clotting to allow formation of a clot during tissue injury. As it is impossible to predict what dose of Warfarin will give the desired degree of suppression of the clotting, Warfarin treatment must be carefully monitored to avoid over-dosing. See Warfarin.

At present, the following human Gla-containing proteins have been characterized to the level of primary structure: the blood coagulation factors II (prothrombin), VII, IX, and X, the anticoagulant proteins C and S, and the Factor X-targeting protein Z. The bone Gla-protein osteocalcin, the calcification inhibiting matrix gla protein (MGP), the cell growth regulating growth arrest specific gene 6 protein (Gas6), and the four transmembrane Gla proteins (TMGPs) the function of which is at present unknown. Gas6 can function as a growth factor that activates the Axl receptor tyrosine kinase and stimulates cell proliferation or prevents apoptosis in some cells. In all cases in which their function was known, the presence of the Gla-residues in these proteins turned out to be essential for functional activity.

Gla-proteins are known to occur in a wide variety of vertebrates: mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. The venom of a number of Australian snakes acts by activating the human blood clotting system. Remarkably, in some cases activation is accomplished by snake Gla-containing enzymes that bind to the endothelium of human blood vessels and catalyze the conversion of procoagulant clotting factors into activated ones, leading to unwanted and potentially deadly clotting.

Another interesting class of invertebrate Gla-containing proteins is synthesized by the fish-hunting snail Conus geographus. These snails produce a venom containing hundreds of neuro-active peptides, or conotoxins, which is sufficiently toxic to kill an adult human. Several of the conotoxins contain 2-5 Gla residues.

Many bacteria, such as Escherichia coli found in the large intestine, can synthesize Vitamin K₂ (menaquinone), but not Vitamin K₁ (phylloquinone). In these bacteria, menaquinone will transfer two electrons between two different small molecules, in a process called anaerobic respiration. For example, a small molecule with an excess of electrons (also called an electron donor) such as lactate, formate, or NADH, with the help of an enzyme, will pass two electrons to a menaquinone. The menaquinone, with the help of another enzyme, will in turn transfer these 2 electrons to a suitable oxidant, such fumarate or nitrate (also called an electron acceptor). Adding two electrons to fumarate or nitrate will convert the molecule to succinate or nitrite + water, respectively. Some of these reactions generate a cellular energy source, ATP, in a manner similar to eukaryotic cell aerobic respiration, except that the final electron acceptor is not molecular oxygen, but say fumarate or nitrate (In aerobic respiration, the final oxidant is molecular oxygen (O₂) , which accepts four electrons from an electron donor such as NADH to be converted to water.) Escherichia coli can carry out aerobic respiration and menaquninone-mediated anaerobic respiration.

Vitamin K substances are IARC Group 3 carcinogens. One study conducted in the United Kingdom in 1970 found a nearly two-fold increase of leukaemia in children administered synthetic Vitamin K₁ phytomenadione intramuscularly, but later studies have failed to find whether Vitamin K is carcinogenic or not.

Other is sodium, chemical element, which has symbol Na (Latin natrium, from Arabic natrun), atomic number 11, atomic mass 22.9898 g/mol, common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within “group 1″ (formerly known as ‘group IA’). It has only one stable isotope, ²³Na. Sodium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1807 by passing an electric current through molten sodium hydroxide. Sodium quickly oxidizes in air and is violently reactive with water, so it must be stored in an inert medium, such as kerosene. Sodium is present in great quantities in the earth’s oceans as sodium chloride (common salt). It is also a component of many minerals, and it is an essential element for animal life. As such, it is classified as a “dietary inorganic macro-mineral.”

At room temperature, sodium metal is so soft that it can be easily cut with a knife. In air, the bright silvery luster of freshly exposed sodium will rapidly tarnish. The density of alkali metals generally increases with increasing atomic number, but sodium is denser than potassium.

Compared with other alkali metals, sodium is generally less reactive than potassium and more reactive than lithium, in accordance with “periodic law“: for example, their reaction in water, chlorine gas, etc.; the reactivity of their nitrates, chlorates, perchlorates, etc.

Sodium reacts exothermically with water: small pea-sized pieces will bounce across the surface of the water until they are consumed by it, whereas large pieces will explode. While sodium reacts with water at room temperature, the sodium piece melts with the heat of the reaction to form a sphere, if the reacting sodium piece is large enough. The reaction with water produces very caustic sodium hydroxide (lye) and highly flammable hydrogen gas. These are extreme hazards (see Precautions section below). When burned in air, sodium forms sodium peroxide Na₂O₂, or with limited oxygen, the oxide Na₂O (unlike lithium, the nitride is not formed). If burned in oxygen under pressure, sodium superoxide NaO₂ will be produced.

In chemistry, most sodium compounds are considered soluble but nature provides examples of many insoluble sodium compounds such as the feldspars. There are other insoluble sodium salts such as sodium bismuthate NaBiO₃, sodium octamolybdate Na₂Mo₈O₂₅• 4H₂O, sodium thioplatinate Na₄Pt₃S₆, sodium uranate Na₂UO₄. Sodium meta-antimonate’s 2NaSbO₃•7H₂O solubility is 0.3g/L as is the pyro form Na₂H₂Sb₂O₇• H₂O of this salt. Sodium metaphosphate NaPO₃ has a soluble and an insoluble form.

Salt has been an important commodity in human activities, as testified by the English word salary, referring to salarium, the wafers of salt sometimes given to Roman soldiers along with their other wages. In medieval Europe a compound of sodium with the Latin name of sodanum was used as a headache remedy. The name sodium probably originates from the Arabic word suda meaning headache as the headache curing properties of sodium carbonate or soda were well known in early times.

Sodium’s chemical abbreviation Na was first published by Jöns Jakob Berzelius in his system of atomic symbols (Thomas Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy) and is a contraction of the element’s new Latin name natrium which refers to the Egyptian natron word for a natural mineral salt whose primary ingredient is hydrated sodium carbonate. This historically had several important industrial and household uses later eclipsed by soda ash, baking soda and other sodium compounds. Although sodium (sometimes called “soda” in English) has long been recognized in compounds, it was not isolated until 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy through the electrolysis of caustic soda.

Sodium imparts an intense yellow color to flames. As early as 1860, Kirchhoff and Bunsen noted the high sensitivity that a flame test for sodium could give. They state in Annalen der Physik und der Chemie in the paper “Chemical Analysis by Observation of Spectra”: When sodium or its compounds are introduced into a flame, they turn the flame a bright yellow color. One notable atomic spectral line of sodium vapor is the so-called D-line, which may be observed directly as the sodium flame-test line (see Applications) and also the major light output of low-pressure sodium lamps (these produce an unnatural yellow, rather than the peach-colored glow of high pressure lamps). The D-line is one of the classified Fraunhofer lines observed in the visible spectrum of the sun’s electromagnetic radiation. Sodium vapor in the upper layers of the sun creates a dark line in the emitted spectrum of electromagnetic radiation by absorbing visible light in a band of wavelengths around 589.5 nm. This wavelength corresponds to transitions in atomic sodium in which the valence-electron transitions from a 3p to 3s electronic state. Closer examination of the visible spectrum of atomic sodium reveals that the D-line actually consists of two lines called the D₁ and D₂ lines at 589.6 nm and 589.0 nm, respectively. This fine structure results from a spin-orbit interaction of the valence electron in the 3p electronic state. The spin-orbit interaction couples the spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum of a 3p electron to form two states that are respectively notated as and in the LS coupling scheme. The 3s state of the electron gives rise to a single state which is notated as 3s(²S_{1 / 2}) in the LS coupling scheme. The D₁-line results from an electronic transition between 3s(²S_{1 / 2}) lower state and upper state. The D₂-line results from an electronic transition between 3s(²S_{1 / 2}) lower state and upper state. Even closer examination of the visible spectrum of atomic sodium would reveal that the D-line actually consists of a lot more than two lines. These lines are associated with hyperfine structure of the 3p upper states and 3s lower states. Many different transitions involving visible light near 589.5 nm may occur between the different upper and lower hyperfine levels.

A practical use for lasers which work at the sodium D-line transition (see FASOR illustration) is to create artificial laser guide stars (artificial star-like images from sodium in the upper atmosphere) which assist in the adaptive optics for large land-based visible light telescopes.

Under extreme pressure, sodium departs from common melting behavior. Most materials require higher temperatures to melt under pressure than they do at normal atmospheric pressure. This is because they expand on melting due to looser molecular packing in the liquid, and thus pressure forces equilibrium in the direction of the denser solid phase.

At a pressure of 30 GPa (300,000 times sea level atmospheric pressure), the melting temperature of sodium begins to drop. At around 100 GPa, sodium will melt at near room temperature. A possible explanation for the aberrant behavior of sodium is that this element has one free electron that is pushed closer to the other 10 electrons when placed under pressure, forcing interactions that are not normally present. While under pressure, solid sodium assumes several odd crystal structures suggesting that the liquid might have unusual properties such as superconduction or superfluidity.

Owing to its high reactivity, sodium is found in nature only as a compound and never as the free element. Sodium makes up about 2.6% by weight of the Earth’s crust, making it the sixth most abundant element overall and the most abundant alkali metal. Sodium is found in many different minerals, of which the most common is ordinary salt (sodium chloride), which occurs in vast quantities dissolved in seawater, as well as in solid deposits (halite). Others include amphibole, cryolite, soda niter and zeolite.

Sodium is relatively abundant in stars and the D spectral lines of this element are among the most prominent in star light. Though elemental sodium has a rather high vaporization temperature, its relatively high abundance and very intense spectral lines have allowed its presence to be detected by ground telescopes and confirmed by spacecraft (Mariner 10 and MESSENGER) in the thin atmosphere of the planet Mercury.

Sodium ions (often referred to as just “sodium”) are necessary for regulation of blood and body fluids, transmission of nerve impulses, heart activity, and certain metabolic functions. Interestingly, although sodium is needed by animals, which maintain high concentrations in their blood and extracellular fluids, the ion is not needed by plants, and is generally phytotoxic. A completely plant-based diet, therefore, will be very low in sodium. This requires some herbivores to obtain their sodium from salt licks and other mineral sources. The animal need for sodium is probably the reason for the highly-conserved ability to taste the sodium ion as “salty.” Receptors for the pure salty taste respond best to sodium, otherwise only to a few other small monovalent cations (Li⁺, NH₄⁺, and somewhat to K⁺). Calcium ion (Ca²⁺) also tastes salty and sometimes bitter to some people but like potassium, can trigger other tastes.

Sodium ions play a diverse and important role in many physiological processes. Excitable animal cells, for example, rely on the entry of Na⁺ to cause a depolarization. An example of this is signal transduction in the human central nervous system, which depends on sodium ion motion across the nerve cell membrane, in all nerves.

Some potent neurotoxins, such as batrachotoxin, increase the sodium ion permeability of the cell membranes in nerves and muscles, causing a massive and irreversible depolarization of the membranes, with potentially fatal consequences. However, drugs with smaller effects on sodium ion motion in nerves may have diverse pharmacological effects which range from anti-depressant to anti-seizure actions.

Sodium is the primary cation (positive ion) in extracellular fluids in animals and humans. These fluids, such as blood plasma and extracellular fluids in other tissues, bathe cells and carry out transport functions for nutrients and wastes. Sodium is also the principal cation in seawater, although the concentration there is about 3.8 times what it is normally in extracellular body fluids.

Although the system for maintaining optimal salt and water balance in the body is a complex one, one of the primary ways in which the human body keeps track of loss of body water is that osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus sense a balance of sodium and water concentration in extracellular fluids. Relative loss of body water will cause sodium concentration to rise higher than normal, a condition known as hypernatremia. This ordinarily results in thirst. Conversely, an excess of body water caused by drinking will result in too little sodium in the blood (hyponatremia), a condition which is again sensed by the hypothalamus, causing a decrease in vasopressin hormone secretion from the posterior pituitary, and a consequent loss of water in the urine, which acts to restore blood sodium concentrations to normal.

Severely dehydrated persons, such as people rescued from ocean or desert survival situations, usually have very high blood sodium concentrations. These must be very carefully and slowly returned to normal, since too-rapid correction of hypernatremia may result in brain damage from cellular swelling, as water moves suddenly into cells with high osmolar content.

Because the hypothalamus/osmoreceptor system ordinarily works well to cause drinking or urination to restore the body’s sodium concentrations to normal, this system can be used in medical treatment to regulate the body’s total fluid content, by first controlling the body’s sodium content. Thus, when a powerful diuretic drug is given which causes the kidneys to excrete sodium, the effect is accompanied by an excretion of body water (water loss accompanies sodium loss). This happens because the kidney is unable to efficiently retain water while excreting large amounts of sodium. In addition, after sodium excretion, the osmoreceptor system may sense lowered sodium concentration in the blood and then direct compensatory urinary water loss in order to correct the hyponatremic (low blood sodium) state.

In humans, a high-salt intake was demonstrated to attenuate nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide (NO) contributes to vessel homeostasis by inhibiting vascular smooth muscle contraction and growth, platelet aggregation, and leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium. The most common sodium salt, sodium chloride (table salt), is used for seasoning (for example the English word “salad” refers to salt) and warm-climate food preservation, such as pickling and making jerky (the high osmotic content of salt inhibits bacterial and fungal growth). The human requirement for sodium in the diet is about 500 mg per day, which is typically less than a tenth as much as many diets “seasoned to taste.” Most people consume far more sodium than is physiologically needed. For certain people with salt-sensitive blood pressure, this extra intake may cause a negative effect on health.

Sodium in its metallic form can be used to refine some reactive metals, such as zirconium and potassium, from their compounds. This alkali metal as the Na⁺ ion is vital to animal life. Other uses:

• In certain alloys to improve their structure.
• In soap, in combination with fatty acids. Sodium soaps are harder (higher melting) soaps than potassium soaps.
• To descale metal (make its surface smooth).
• To purify molten metals.

• In sodium vapor lamps, an efficient means of producing light from electricity (see the picture), often used for street lighting in cities. Low-pressure sodium lamps give a distinctive yellow-orange light which consists primarily of the twin sodium D lines. High-pressure sodium lamps give a more natural peach-colored light, composed of wavelengths spread much more widely across the spectrum.

• As a heat transfer fluid in some types of nuclear reactors and inside the hollow valves of high-performance internal combustion engines.
• Sodium chloride (NaCl), a compound of sodium ions and chloride ions, is an important heat transfer material.
• In organic synthesis, sodium is used as a reducing agent, for example in the Birch reduction.
• In chemistry, sodium is often used either alone or with potassium in an alloy, NaK as a desiccant for drying solvents. Used with benzophenone, it forms an intense blue coloration when the solvent is dry and oxygen-free.

Sodium is now produced commercially through the electrolysis of liquid sodium chloride, based on a process patented in 1924. This is done in a Downs Cell in which the NaCl is mixed with calcium chloride to lower the melting point below 700 °C. As calcium is less electropositive than sodium, no calcium will be formed at the anode. This method is less expensive than the previous Castner process of electrolyzing sodium hydroxide. Very pure sodium can be isolated by the thermal decomposition of sodium azide. Metallic sodium cost about 15 to 20 US cents per pound (US$0.30/kg to US$0.45/kg) in 1997, but reagent grade (ACS) sodium cost about US$35 per pound (US$75/kg) in 1990.

Extreme care is required in handling elemental/metallic sodium. Sodium is potentially explosive in water (depending on quantity) and is a caustic poison, since it is rapidly converted to sodium hydroxide on contact with moisture. The powdered form may combust spontaneously in air or oxygen. Sodium must be stored either in an inert (oxygen and moisture free) atmosphere (such as nitrogen or argon), or under a liquid hydrocarbon such as mineral oil or kerosene.

The reaction of sodium and water is a familiar one in chemistry labs, and is reasonably safe if amounts of sodium smaller than a pencil eraser are used and the reaction is done behind a plastic shield by people wearing eye protection. However, the sodium-water reaction does not scale up well, and is treacherous when larger amounts of sodium are used. Larger pieces of sodium melt under the heat of the reaction, and the molten ball of metal is buoyed up by hydrogen and may appear to be stably reacting with water, until splashing covers more of the reaction mass, causing thermal runaway and an explosion which scatters molten sodium, lye solution, and sometimes flame. (18.5 g explosion) This behavior is unpredictable, and among the alkali metals it is usually sodium which invites this surprise phenomenon, because lithium is not reactive enough to do it, and potassium is so reactive that chemistry students are not tempted to try the reaction with larger potassium pieces.

Sodium is much more reactive than magnesium; a reactivity which can be further enhanced due to sodium’s much lower melting point. When sodium catches fire in air (as opposed to just the hydrogen gas generated from water by means of its reaction with sodium) it more easily produces temperatures high enough to melt the sodium, exposing more of its surface to the air and spreading the fire.

Few common fire extinguishers work on sodium fires. Water, of course, exacerbates sodium fires, as do water-based foams. CO₂ and Halon are often ineffective on sodium fires, which reignite when the extinguisher dissipates. Among the very few materials effective on a sodium fire are Pyromet and Met-L-X. Pyromet is a NaCl/(NH₄)₂HPO₄ mix, with flow/anti-clump agents. It smothers the fire, drains away heat, and melts to form an impermeable crust. This is the standard dry-powder canister fire extinguisher for all classes of fires. Met-L-X is mostly sodium chloride, NaCl, with approximately 5% Saran plastic as a crust-former and flow/anti-clumping agent. It is most commonly hand-applied, with a scoop. Other extreme fire extinguishing materials include Lith+, a graphite based dry powder with an organophosphate flame retardant; and Na+, a Na₂CO₃-based material.

Because of the reaction scale problems discussed above, disposing of large quantities of sodium (more than 10 to 100 grams) must be done through a licensed hazardous materials disposer. Smaller quantities may be broken up and neutralized carefully with ethanol (which has a much slower reaction than water), or even methanol (where the reaction is more rapid than ethanol’s but still less than in water), but care should nevertheless be taken, as the caustic products from the ethanol or methanol reaction are just as hazardous to eyes and skin as those from water. After the alcohol reaction appears complete, and all pieces of reaction debris have been broken up or dissolved, a mixture of alcohol and water, then pure water, may then be carefully used for a final cleaning. This should be allowed to stand a few minutes until the reaction products are diluted more thoroughly and flushed down the drain. The purpose of the final water soak and wash of any reaction mass which may contain sodium is to ensure that alcohol does not carry unreacted sodium into the sink trap, where a water reaction may generate hydrogen in the trap space which can then be potentially ignited, causing a confined sink trap explosion.

Potassium is a chemical element. It has the symbol K (Latin: kalium, from Arabic: qalīy‎) and atomic number 19. The name “potassium” comes from the word “potash”, as potassium was first isolated from potash. Potassium is a soft silvery-white metallic alkali metal that occurs naturally bound to other elements in seawater and many minerals. It oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the evolved hydrogen. In many respects, potassium and sodium are chemically similar, although they have very different functions in organisms in general, and in animal cells in particular.

Potassium metal is never found free, as it reacts violently with the abundant water in nature. As various compounds, potassium makes up about 1.5% of the weight of the Earth’s crust and is the seventh most abundant element. As it is very electropositive, potassium metal is difficult to obtain from its minerals. Potassium salts such as carnallite, langbeinite, polyhalite, and sylvite form extensive deposits in ancient lake and seabeds, making extraction of potassium salts in these environments commercially viable. The principal source of potassium, potash, is mined in Saskatchewan, California, Germany, New Mexico, Utah, and in other places around the world. It is also found abundantly in the Dead Sea. Three thousand feet below the surface of Saskatchewan are large deposits of potash which are important sources of this element and its salts, with several large mines in operation since the 1960s. Saskatchewan pioneered the use of freezing of wet sands (the Blairmore formation) in order to drive mine shafts through them. The main mining company is the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. The oceans are another source of potassium, but the quantity present in a given volume of seawater is relatively low compared with sodium.

Pure potassium metal can be isolated by electrolysis of its hydroxide in a process that has changed little since Davy. Thermal methods also are employed in potassium production; using potassium chloride Humphrey Davies extracted this metal in 1807 along with sodium

There are 24 known isotopes of potassium. Three isotopes occur naturally: ³⁹K (93.3%), ⁴⁰K (0.0117%) and ⁴¹K (6.7%). Naturally occurring ⁴⁰K decays to stable ⁴⁰Ar (11.2%) by electron capture and by positron emission, and decays to stable ⁴⁰Ca (88.8%) by beta decay; ⁴⁰K has a half-life of 1.250×10⁹ years. The decay of ⁴⁰K to ⁴⁰Ar enables commonly used m argon at the time of formation and that all the subsequent radiogenic argon (i.e., ⁴⁰Ar) was quantitatively retained. Minerals are dated by measurement of the concentration of potassium and the amount of radiogenic ⁴⁰Ar that has accumulated. The minerals that are best suited for dating include biotite, muscovite, plutonic/high grade metamorphic hornblende, and volcanic feldspar; whole rock samples from volcanic flows and shallow instrusives can also be dated if they are unaltered.

Outside of dating, potassium isotopes have been used extensively as tracers in studies of weathering. They have also been used for nutrient cycling studies because potassium is a macronutrient required for life. ⁴⁰K occurs in natural potassium (and thus in some commercial salt substitutes) in sufficient quantity that large bags of those substitutes can be used as a radioactive source for classroom demonstrations. In healthy animals and people, ⁴⁰K represents the largest source of radioactivity, greater even than ¹⁴C. In a human body of 70 kg mass, about 4,400 nuclei of ⁴⁰K decay per second. The activity of natural potassium is 31 Bq/g. Potassium is the second least dense metal; only lithium is less dense. It is a soft, low-melting

Potassium is solid that can easily be cut with a knife. Freshly cut potassium is silvery in appearance, but in air it begins to tarnish toward grey immediately. In a flame test, potassium and its compounds emit a pale violet color, which may be masked by the strong yellow emission of sodium if it is also present. Cobalt glass can be used to filter out the yellow sodium color. Potassium concentration in solution is commonly determined by flame photometry, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, inductively coupled plasma, or ion selective electrodes. Potassium must be protected from air for storage to prevent disintegration of the metal from oxide and hydroxide corrosion. Often samples are maintained under a reducing medium such as kerosene.

Like the other alkali metals, potassium reacts violently with water, producing hydrogen. The reaction is notably more violent than that of lithium or sodium with water, and is sufficiently exothermic that the evolved hydrogen gas ignites.

2K(s) + 2H₂O(l) → H₂(g) + 2KOH(aq)

Because potassium reacts quickly with even traces of water, and its reaction products are nonvolatile, it is sometimes used alone, or as NaK (an alloy with sodium which is liquid at room temperature) to dry solvents prior to distillation. In this role, it serves as a potent desiccant.

Potassium hydroxide reacts strongly with carbon dioxide to produce potassium carbonate, and is used to remove traces of CO₂ from air. Potassium compounds generally have excellent water solubility, due to the high hydration energy of the K⁺ ion. The potassium ion is colorless in water. Methods of separating potassium by precipitation, sometimes used for gravimetric analysis, include the use of sodium tetraphenylborate, hexachloroplatinic acid, and sodium cobaltinitrite. Potassium cations are important in neuron (brain and nerve) function, and in influencing osmotic balance between cells and the interstitial fluid.

Potassium may be detected by taste because it triggers three of the five types of taste sensations, according to concentration. Dilute solutions of potassium ion taste sweet (allowing moderate concentrations in milk and juices), while higher concentrations become increasingly bitter/alkaline, and finally also salty to the taste. The combined bitterness and saltiness of high potassium content solutions makes high-dose potassium supplementation by liquid drinks a palatability challenge. Potassium is also important in allowing muscle contraction and the sending of all nerve impulses in animals through action potentials. By nature of their electrostatic and chemical properties, K⁺ ions are larger than Na⁺ ions, and ion channels and pumps in cell membranes can distinguish between the two types of ions, actively pumping or passively allowing one of the two ions to pass, while blocking the other. A shortage of potassium in body fluids may cause a potentially fatal condition known as hypokalemia, typically resulting from diarrhea, increased diuresis and vomiting. Deficiency symptoms include muscle weakness, paralytic ileus, ECG abnormalities, decreased reflex response and in severe cases respiratory paralysis, alkalosis and cardiac arrhythmia. Potassium is an essential mineral micronutrient in human nutrition; it is the major cation (positive ion) inside animal cells, and it is thus important in maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance in the body. Sodium makes up most of the cations of blood plasma at about 145 milliequivalents per liter (3345 milligrams) and potassium makes up most of the cell fluid cations at about 150 milliequivalents per liter (4800 milligrams). Plasma is filtered through the glomerulus of the kidneys in enormous amounts, about 180 liters per day. Thus 602,000 milligrams of sodium and 33,000 milligrams of potassium are filtered each day. All but the 1000-10,000 milligrams of sodium and the 1000-4000 milligrams of potassium likely to be in the diet must be reabsorbed. Sodium must be reabsorbed in such a way as to keep the blood volume exactly right and the osmotic pressure correct; potassium must be reabsorbed in such a way as to keep serum concentration as close as possible to 4.8 milliequivalents (about 190 milligrams) per liter. Sodium pumps must always operate to conserve sodium. Potassium must sometimes be conserved also, but since the amount of potassium in the blood plasma is very small and the pool of potassium in the cells is about thirty times as large, the situation is not so critical for potassium. Since potassium is moved passivelyin counter flow to sodium in response to an apparent (but not actual) Donnan equilibrium, the urine can never sink below the concentration of potassium in serum except sometimes by actively excreting water at the end of the processing. Potassium is secreted twice and reabsorbed three times before the urine reaches the collecting tubules. At that point, it usually has about the same potassium concentration as plasma. If potassium were removed from the diet, there would remain a minimum obligatory kidney excretion of about 200 mg per day when the serum declines to 3.0-3.5 milliequivalents per liter in about one week, and can never be cut off completely. Because it cannot be cut off completely, death will result when the whole body potassium declines to the vicinity of one-half full capacity. At the end of the processing, potassium is secreted one more time if the serum levels are too high.

The potassium moves passively through pores in the cell wall. When ions move through pumps there is a gate in the pumps on either side of the cell wall and only one gate can be open at once. As a result 100 ions are forced through per second. Pores have only one gate and there one kind of ion only can stream through at 10 million to 100 million ions per second. The pores require calcium in order to open although it is thought that the calcium works in reverse by blocking at least one of the pores. Carbonyl group inside the pore on the amino acids mimics the water hydration that takes place in water solution by the nature of the electrostatic charges on four carbonyl groups inside the pore.

Adequate intake can generally be guaranteed by eating a variety of foods containing potassium and deficiency is rare in healthy individuals eating a balanced diet. Foods with high sources of potassium include orange juice, potatoes, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, broccoli, soybeans and apricots, although it is also common in most fruits, vegetables and meats. Diets high in potassium can reduce the risk of hypertension and a potassium deficiency combined with an inadequate thiamine intake has produced heart disease in rats. The 2004 guidelines of the Institute of Medicine specify a DRI of 4,000mg of potassium, though most Americans consume only half that amount per day. Similarly, in the European Union, particularly in Germany and Italy, insufficient potassium intake is somewhat common. Supplements of potassium in medicine are most widely used in conjunction with loop diuretics and thiazides, classes of diuretics which rid the body of sodium and water, but have the side effect of also causing potassium loss in urine. A variety of medical supplements are available. If potassium supplements are used, such as sodium free baking powder and sodium free table salt, inadequate thiamine can cause beriberi. Individuals suffering from kidney diseases may suffer adverse health effects from consuming large quantities of dietary potassium. End stage renal failure patients undergoing therapy by renal dialysis must observe strict dietary limits on potassium intake, since the kidneys control potassium excretion, and buildup of blood concentrations of potassium may trigger fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Acute hyperkalemia can be reduced through eating baking soda,or glucose, hyperventilation and perspiration. Potassium ion is an essential component of plant nutrition and is found in most soil types. Its primary use in agriculture, horticulture and hydroponic culture is as a fertilizer as the chloride (KCl), sulfate (K₂SO₄) or nitrate (KNO₃). In animal cells, potassium ions are vital to keeping cells alive (see Na-K pump). Potassium ion is a nutrient necessary for human life and health. Potassium chloride is used as a substitute for table salt by those seeking to reduce sodium intake so as to control hypertension. Good dietary sources of potassium include celery juice.The USDA lists tomato paste, orange juice, beet greens, white beans, bananas, and many other good dietary sources of potassium, ranked according to potassium content per measure shown. Potassium sodium tartrate, or Rochelle salt (KNaC₄H₄O₆) is the main constituent of baking powder. Potassium bromate (KBrO₃) is a strong oxidiser, used as a flour improver (E924) to improve dough strength and rise height. The sulfite compound, potassium bisulfite (KHSO₃) is used as a food preservative, for example in wine and beer-making (but not in meats). It is also used to bleach textiles and straw, and in the tanning of leathers.

Non-dietary uses of potassium chloride include its use to stop the heart, e.g. in cardiac surgery and in a solution used in executions by lethal injection. Potassium vapor is used in several types of magnetometers. An alloy of sodium and potassium, NaK (usually pronounced “nack”that is liquid at room temperature, is used as a heat-transfer medium. It can also be used as a desiccant for producing dry and air-free solvents. Potassium metal reacts vigorously with all of the halogens to form the corresponding potassium halides, which are white, water-soluble salts with cubic crystal morphology. Potassium bromide (KBr), potassium iodide (KI) and potassium chloride (KCl) are used in photographic emulsion to make the corresponding photosensitive silver halides. Potassium hydroxide KOH is a strong base, used in industry to neutralize strong and weak acids and thereby finding uses in pH control and in the manufacture of potassium salts. Potassium hydroxide is also used to saponify fats and oils and in hydrolysis reactions, for example of esters and in industrial cleaners.

Potassium nitrate KNO₃ or saltpeter is obtained from natural sources such as guano and evaporites or manufactured by the Haber process and is the oxidant in gunpowder (black powder) and an important agricultural fertilizer. Potassium cyanide KCN is used industrially to dissolve copper and precious metals particularly silver and gold by forming complexes; applications include gold mining, electroplating and electroforming of these metals. It is also used in organic synthesis to make nitriles. Potassium carbonate K₂CO₃, also known as potash, is used in the manufacture of glass and soap and as a mild desiccant.

Potassium chromate (K₂CrO₄) is used in dyes and stains (bright yellowish-red colour), in explosives and fireworks, in safety matches, in the tanning of leather and in fly paper. Potassium fluorosilicate (K₂SiF₆) is used in specialized glasses, ceramics, and enamels. Potassium sodium tartrate, or Rochelle salt (KNaC₄H₄O₆) is used in the silvering of mirrors.

The superoxide KO₂ is an orange-colored solid used as a portable source of oxygen and as a carbon dioxide absorber. It is useful in portable respiration systems. It is widely used in submarines and spacecraft as it takes less volume than O₂(g).

4KO₂ + 2CO₂ — 2K₂CO₃ + O₂

Potassium chlorate KClO₃ is a strong oxidant, used in percussion caps and safety matches and in agriculture as a weedkiller. Glass may be treated with molten potassium nitrate KNO₃ to make toughened glass, which is much stronger than regular glass. Potassium was discovered in 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy, who derived it from caustic potash (KOH). Before the 18th century, no distinction was made between potassium and sodium. Potassium was the first metal that was isolated by electrolysis. Potassium was not known in Roman times, and its names are not Classical Latin but rather neo-Latin.

• The name kalium was taken from the word “alkali“, which came from Arabic al qalīy = “the calcined ashes”.
• The name potassium was made from the word “potash”, which is English, and originally meant an alkali extracted in a pot from the ash of burnt wood or tree leaves.

Potassium reacts very violently with water producing hydrogen gas which then usually catches fire. Potassium is usually kept under a mineral oil such as kerosene to stop the metal reacting with water vapour present in the air. Unlike lithium and sodium, however, potassium should not be stored under oil indefinitely. If stored longer than 6 months to a year, dangerous shock-sensitive peroxides can form on the metal and under the lid of the container, which can detonate upon opening. It is recommended that potassium, rubidium or caesium not be stored for longer than three months unless stored in an inert (oxygen free) atmosphere, or under vacuum.

As potassium reacts with water to produce highly flammable hydrogen gas, a potassium fire is only exacerbated by the addition of water, and only a few dry chemicals are effective for putting out such a fire (sees the precaution section in sodium).

Potassium also produces potassium hydroxide (KOH) in the reaction with water. Potassium hydroxide is a strong alkali and so is a caustic hazard, causing burns. Due to the highly reactive nature of potassium, it should be handled with great care, with full skin and eye protection being used and preferably an explosive resistant barrier between the user and the source of the potassium.

Calcium (pronounced /ˈkælsiəm/) is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the Earth’s crust. Calcium is also the fifth most abundant dissolved ion in seawater by both molarity and mass, after sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfate. Calcium is essential for living organisms, particularly in cell physiology, where movement of the calcium ion Ca²⁺ into and out of the cytoplasm functions as a signal for many cellular processes. As a major material used in mineralization of bones and shells, calcium is the most abundant metal by mass in many animals.

Chemically calcium is reactive and soft for a metal (though harder than lead, it can be cut with a knife with difficulty). It is a silvery metallic element that must be extracted by electrolysis from a fused salt like calcium chloride.^[2] Once produced, it rapidly forms a grey-white oxide and nitride coating when exposed to air. It is somewhat difficult to ignite, unlike magnesium, but when lit, the metal burns in air with a brilliant high-intensity red light. Calcium metal reacts with water, evolving hydrogen gas at a rate rapid enough to be noticeable, but not fast enough at room temperature to generate much heat. In powdered form, however, the reaction with water is extremely rapid, as the increased surface area of the powder accelerates the reaction with the water. Parts of the slowness calcium and water reaction results from the metal being partly protected, by insoluble white calcium hydroxide. In water solutions of acids where the salt is water soluble, calcium reacts vigorously. Calcium, though it has a higher resistivity than copper or aluminium, weight for weight, allowing for its much lower density calcium is a rather better conductor than either. However, its use in terrestrial applications is usually limited by its high reactivity with air. In vacuum use, calcium tends to sublime unless plated.

Calcium salts are colorless from any contribution of the calcium, and ionic solutions of calcium (Ca²⁺) are colorless as well. Many calcium salts are not soluble in water. When in solution, the calcium ion to the human taste varies remarkably, being reported as mildly salty, sour, “mineral like” or even “soothing.” It is apparent that many animals can taste, or develop a taste, for calcium, and use this sense to detect the mineral in salt licks or other sources. In human nutrition, soluble calcium salts may be added to tart juices without much effect to the average palate.

Calcium is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the human body, where it is a common cellular ionic messenger with many functions, and serves also as a structural element in bone. It is the relatively high atomic-numbered calcium in the skeleton which causes bone to be radio-opaque. Of the human body’s solid components after drying (as for example, after cremation), about a third of the total mass is the approximately one kilogram of calcium which composes the average skeleton (the remainder being mostly phosphorus and oxygen).

Calcium (Latin calx, meaning “limestone”) was known as early as the first century when the Ancient Romans prepared lime as calcium oxide. It was not isolated until 1808 in England when Sir Humphry Davy electrolyzed a mixture of lime and mercuric oxide. Davy was trying to isolate calcium; when he heard that Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Pontin prepared calcium amalgam by electrolyzing lime in mercury, he tried it himself. He worked with electrolysis throughout his life and also discovered/isolated sodium, potassium, magnesium, boron and barium.

Calcium, combined with phosphate to form hydroxylapatite, is the mineral portion of human and animal bones and teeth. The mineral portion of some corals can also be transformed into hydroxylapatite.

Calcium oxide (lime) is used in many chemical refinery processes and is made by heating and carefully adding water to limestone. When lime is mixed with sand, it hardens into a mortar and is turned into plaster by carbon dioxide uptake. Mixed with other compounds, lime forms an important part of Portland cement.

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) is one of the common compounds of calcium. It is heated to form quicklime (CaO), which is then added to water (H₂O). This forms another material known as slaked lime (Ca(OH)₂), which is an inexpensive base material used throughout the chemical industry. Chalk, marble, and limestone are all forms of calcium carbonate.

When water percolates through limestone or other soluble carbonate rocks, it partially dissolves the rock and causes cave formation and characteristic stalactites and stalagmites and also forms hard water. Other important calcium compounds are calcium nitrate, calcium sulfide, calcium chloride, calcium carbide, calcium cyanamide and calcium hypochlorite.

Calcium is an important component of a healthy diet. Calcium is essential for the normal growth and maintenance of bones and teeth, and calcium requirements must be met throughout life. Long-term calcium deficiency can lead to rickets and poor blood clotting and in case of a menopausal woman, it can lead to osteoporosis, in which the bone deteriorates and there is an increased risk of fractures. While a lifelong deficit can affect bone and tooth formation, over-retention can cause hypercalcemia (elevated levels of calcium in the blood), impaired kidney function and decreased absorption of other minerals. High calcium intakes or high calcium absorption were previously thought to contribute to the development of kidney stones. However, more recent studies show that high dietary calcium intakes actually decrease the risk for kidney stones.^[7] Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium.

Dairy products, such as milk and cheese, are a well-known source of calcium. However, some individuals are allergic to dairy products and even more people, particularly those of non Indo-European descent, are lactose-intolerant, leaving them unable to consume non-fermented dairy products in quantities larger than about half a liter per serving. Others, such as vegans, avoid dairy products for ethical and health reasons. Fortunately, many good sources of calcium exist. These include seaweeds such as kelp, wakame and hijiki; nuts and seeds (like almonds and sesame); blackstrap molasses; beans; oranges; figs; quinoa; amaranth; collard greens; okra; rutabaga; broccoli; dandelion leaves; kale; and fortified products such as orange juice and soy milk. (However, calcium fortified orange juice often contains vitamin D3 derived from lanolin, and is thus unacceptable for vegans.) An overlooked source of calcium is eggshell, which can be ground into a powder and mixed into food or a glass of water. Cultivated vegetables generally have less calcium than wild plants. The calcium content of most foods can be found in the USDA National Nutrient Database

Calcium supplements are used to prevent and to treat calcium deficiencies. Most experts recommend that supplements be taken with food and that no more than 600 mg should be taken at a time because the percent of calcium absorbed decreases as the amount of calcium in the supplement increases. It is recommended to spread doses throughout the day. Recommended daily calcium intake for adults ranges from 1000 to 1500 mg. It is recommended to take supplements with food to aid in absorption.

Vitamin D is added to some calcium supplements. Vitamin D is not necessary, but it might be beneficial if the person has low vitamin D status. Proper vitamin D status is important because vitamin D is converted to a hormone in the body which then induces the synthesis of intestinal proteins responsible for calcium absorption. The absorption of calcium from most food and commonly-used dietary supplements is very similar. This is contrary to what many calcium supplement manufacturers claim in their promotional materials.

• Milk is an excellent source of dietary calcium because it has a high concentration of calcium and the calcium in milk is excellently absorbed.
• Calcium carbonate is the most common and least expensive calcium supplement. It should be taken with food. The absorption of calcium from calcium carbonate is similar to the absorption of calcium from milk. While most people digest calcium carbonate very well, some might develop gastrointestinal discomfort or gas. Taking magnesium with it can help to avoid constipation. Calcium carbonate is 40% elemental calcium. 1000 mg will provide 400 mg of calcium. However, supplement labels will usually indicate how much calcium is present in each serving, not how much calcium carbonate is present.
• Antacids, such as Tums, frequently contain calcium carbonate, and are a very commonly-used, inexpensive calcium supplement.
• Coral Calcium is a salt of calcium derived from fossilized coral reefs. Coral calcium is composed of calcium carbonate and trace minerals.
• Calcium citrate can be taken without food and is the supplement of choice for individuals with achlorhydria or who are taking histamine-2 blockers or proton-pump inhibitors. It is more easily digested and absorbed than calcium carbonate if taken on empty stomach and less likely to cause constipation and gas than calcium carbonate. It also has a lower risk of contributing to the formation of kidney stones. Calcium citrate is about 21% elemental calcium. 1000 mg will provide 210 mg of calcium. It is more expensive than calcium carbonate and more of it must be taken to get the same amount of calcium.
• Calcium phosphate costs more than calcium carbonate, but less than calcium citrate. It is easily absorbed and is less likely to cause constipation and gas than either.
• Calcium lactate has similar absorption as calcium carbonate, but is more expensive. Calcium lactate and calcium gluconate are less concentrated forms of calcium and are not practical oral supplements.
• Calcium chelates are synthetic calcium compounds, with calcium bound to an organic molecule, such as malate, aspartate, or fumarate. These forms of calcium may be better absorbed on an empty stomach. However, in general they are absorbed similarly to calcium carbonate and other common calcium supplements when taken with food. The ‘chelate’ mimics the action that natural food performs by keeping the calcium soluble in the intestine. Thus, on an empty stomach, in some individuals, chelates might theoretically be absorbed better.
• Microcrystalline hydroxyapatite (MH) is marketed as a calcium supplement, and has in some randomized trials been found to be more effective than calcium carbonate.
• Orange juice with calcium added is a good dietary source for persons who have lactose intolerance.

The National Nutritional Food Association — NNFA (Newport Beach, Calif.) defines a chelate very specifically, and several criteria must be met in order for chelation to actually occur. Some of the claimed “chelates” on the market are the various Krebs (Citric Acid) Cycle chelates, such as citrate, malate, and aspartate. Dicalcium malate (chelated with malic acid) is a newer form of a true calcium chelate. It contains a high amount of elemental calcium (30%).

In July 2006, a report citing research from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington claimed that women in their 50s gained 5 pounds less in a period of 10 years by taking more than 500 mg of calcium supplements than those who did not. However, the doctor in charge of the study, Dr. Alejandro J. Gonzalez also noted it would be “going out on a limb” to suggest calcium supplements as a weight-limiting aid.

Such studies often do not test calcium alone, but rather combinations of calcium and vitamin D. Randomized controlled trials found both positive and negative effects. The different results may be explained by doses of calcium and underlying rates of calcium supplementation in the control groups. However, it is clear that increasing the intake of calcium promotes deposition of calcium in the bones, where it is of more benefit in preventing the compression fractures resulting from the osteoporotic thinning of the dendritic web of the bodies of the vertebrae, than it is at preventing the more serious cortical bone fractures which happen at hip and wrist.

A meta-analysis by the international Cochrane Collaboration of two randomized controlled trials found that calcium “might contribute to a moderate degree to the prevention of adenomatous colonic polyps“.

More recent studies were conflicting, and one which was positive for effect (Lappe, et al.) did control for a possible anti-carcinogenic effect of vitamin D, which was found to be an independent positive influence from calcium-alone on cancer risk (see second study below) A randomized controlled trial found that 1000 mg of elemental calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D₃ had no effect on colorectal cancer

• A randomized controlled trial found that 1400–1500 mg supplemental calcium and 1100 IU vitamin D₃ reduced aggregated cancers with a relative risk of 0.402.
• An observational cohort study found that high calcium and vitamin D intake was associated with “lower risk of developing premenopausal breast cancer.”

Exceeding the recommended daily calcium intake for an extended period of time can result in hypercalcemia

Phosphorus is a key element in all known forms of life. Inorganic phosphorus in the form of the phosphate PO₄^3- plays a major role in biological molecules such as DNA and RNA where it forms part of the structural framework of these molecules. Living cells also use phosphate to transport cellular energy via adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Nearly every cellular process that uses energy obtains it in the form of ATP. ATP is also important for phosphorylation, a key regulatory event in cells. Phospholipids are the main structural components of all cellular membranes. Calcium phosphate salts assist in stiffening bones.

An average adult human contains a little less than 1 kg of phosphorus, about 85% of which is present in bones and teeth in the form of apatite, and the remainder inside cells in soft tissues. A well-fed adult in the industrialized world consumes and excretes about 1-3 g of phosphorus per day in the form of phosphate. Only about 0.1% of body phosphate circulates in the blood, but this amount reflects the amount of phosphate available to soft tissue cells.

In medicine, low phosphate syndromes are caused by malnutrition, by failure to absorb phosphate, and by metabolic syndromes which draw phosphate from the blood or pass too much of it into the urine. All are characterized by hypophosphatemia (see article for medical details). Symptoms of low phosphate include muscle and neurological dysfunction, and disruption of muscle and blood cells due to lack of ATP.

Phosphorus is an essential macromineral for plants, which is studied extensively in edaphology in order to understand plant uptake from soil systems. In ecological terms, phosphorus is often a limiting factor in many environments; i.e. the availability of phosphorus governs the rate of growth of many organisms. In ecosystems an excess of phosphorus can be problematic, especially in aquatic systems, see eutrophication and algal blooms.

Copper is essential in all plants and animals. Copper is carried mostly in the bloodstream on a plasma protein called ceruloplasmin. When copper is first absorbed in the gut it is transported to the liver bound to albumin. Copper is found in a variety of enzymes, including the copper centers of cytochrome c oxidase and the enzyme superoxide dismutase (containing copper and zinc). In addition to its enzymatic roles, copper is used for biological electron transport. The blue copper proteins that participate in electron transport include azurin and plastocyanin. The name “blue copper” comes from their intense blue color arising from a ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) absorption band around 600 nm.

Most molluscs and some arthropods such as the horseshoe crab use the copper-containing pigment hemocyanin rather than iron-containing hemoglobin for oxygen transport, so their blood is blue when oxygenated rather than red. It is believed that zinc and copper compete for absorption in the digestive tract so that a diet that is excessive in one of these minerals may result in a deficiency in the other. The RDA for copper in normal healthy adults is 0.9 mg/day. On the other hand, professional research on the subject recommends 3.0 mg/day.ecause of its role in facilitating iron uptake, copper deficiency can often produce anemia-like symptoms. In humans, the symptoms of Wilson’s disease are caused by an accumulation of copper in body tissues.

Chronic copper depletion leads to abnormalities in metabolism of fats, high triglycerides, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fatty liver disease and poor melanin and dopamine synthesis causing depression and sunburn. Food rich in copper should be eaten away from any milk or egg proteins as they block absorption.

Toxicity can occur from eating acid food that had been cooked in Copper cookware. Cirrhosis of the liver in children (Indian Childhood Cirrhosis) has been linked to boiling milk in copper cookware. The Merck Manual states that recent studies suggest that a genetic defect is associated with this cirrhosis, but this should not be regarded as an endorsement of the practice since other toxicity besides cirrhosis can occur as in adults.

With an LD₅₀ of 30 mg/kg in rats, “gram quantities” of copper sulfate are potentially lethal in humans. The suggested safe level of copper in drinking water for humans varies depending on the source, but tends to be pegged at 1.5 to 2 mg/LThe DRI Tolerable Upper Intake Level for adults of dietary copper from all sources is 10 mg/day. In toxicity, copper can inhibit the enzyme dihydrophil hydratase, an enzyme involved in haemopoiesis. Symptoms of copper poisoning are very similar to those produced by arsenic. Fatal cases are generally terminated by convulsions, palsy, and insensibility.

In cases of suspected copper poisoning, Ovalbumin is to be administered in either of its forms which can be most readily obtained, as milk or whites of eggs. Vinegar should not be given. The inflammatory symptoms are to be treated on general principles, and so are the nervous.

A significant portion of the toxicity of copper comes from its ability to accept and donate single electrons as it changes oxidation state. This catalyzes the production of very reactive radical ions such as hydroxyl radical in a manner similar to Fenton chemistry. This catalytic activity of copper is used by the enzymes that it is associated with and is thus only toxic when unsequestered and unmediated. This increase in unmediated reactive radicals is generally termed oxidative stress and is an active area of research in a variety of diseases where copper may play an important but more subtle role than in acute toxicity.

An inherited condition called Wilson’s disease causes the body to retain copper, since it is not excreted by the liver into the bile. This disease, if untreated, can lead to brain and liver damage. In addition, studies have found that people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia had heightened levels of copper in their systems. However it is unknown at this stage whether the copper contributes to the mental illness, whether the body attempts to store more copper in response to the illness, or whether the high levels of copper are the result of the mental illness. Too much copper in water has also been found to damage marine life. The observed effect of these higher concentrations on fish and other creatures is damage to gills, liver, kidneys, and the nervous system. It also interferes with the sense of smell in fish, thus preventing them from choosing good mates or finding their way to mating areas.

Arginine plays an important role in cell division, the healing of wounds, removing ammonia from the body, immune function, and the release of hormones. Arginine, taken in combination with proanthocyanidins or yohimbine, has also been used as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

The benefits and functions attributed to oral ingestion of L-arginine include:

• Precursor for the synthesis of Nitric Oxide (NO)
• Stimulation of the release of growth hormone.
• Improves immune function
• Reduces healing time of injuries (particularly bone)
• Quickens repair time of damaged tissue
• Reduces risk of heart disease
• Increases muscle mass
• Reduces adipose tissue body fat
• Helps improve insulin sensitivity
• Helps decrease blood pressure
• Alleviates male infertility, improving sperm production and motility
• Increases circulation throughout the body, including the sex organs

sholarly paper September 14, 2008

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Coconut contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, alcohol, water, total dietary fibre, cholesterol, and mineral. The percentages of that described in table of main ingredients together with picture.

Coconut is one of many medical plants. Ingredients inside of coconut meat are useable for production like “kopra”. Beside for economic increasing, it is useful for health. Besides that, coconut contains vitamins, minerals, trace elements aminos, acids fatty acid, and special carbohydrates.

Medicinal plants are plants which may have medicinal properties. Almost all our present medicines are derived from research on medicinal plants. Coconut oil, also known as coconut butter, is a tropical oil with many applications. It is extracted from copra (derived from the word “kopra” which means dried coconut). Coconut oil constitutes seven percent of the total export income of the Philippines, the world’s largest exporter of the product. Coconut oil was developed as a commercial product by merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s.

Beside used to health, coconut oil has been tested for use as a feedstock for biodiesel to be used as a diesel engine fuel. In this manner it can be applied to power generators and transport using diesel engines. Since straight coconut oil has a high gelling temperature (22-25°C), a high viscosity, and a minimum combustion chamber temperature of 500 °C (932 °F) (to avoid polymerization of the fuel), coconut oil is typically blended to make biodiesel. B100 biodiesel blends are only possible in temperate climates as the gel point is approximately 10°C (50 degrees Fahrenheit). The oil needs to meet the Weihenstephan standard for pure vegetable oil used as a fuel since otherwise moderate to severe damage from carbonisation and clogging will occur in an unmodified engine.

Coconut oil is currently used as a fuel for transport in the Philippines. Further research into the oil’s potential as a fuel for electricity generation is being carried out in the islands of the Pacific. In the 1990s Bougainville conflict, islanders cut off from supplies due to a blockade used it to fuel their vehicles. During February 2008, a mixture of coconut oil and babassu oil was used to partially power one engine of a Boeing 747, in a biofuel trial sponsored by Virgin Atlantic.

Coconut oil has been tested for use as an engine lubricant; the company producing the oil claims the oil reduces fuel consumption, smoke emissions and allows the engine to run at a cooler temperature.

Coconut oil is a fat consisting of about 90% saturated fat. The oil contains predominantly medium chain triglycerides, with roughly 92% saturated fatty acids, 6% monounsaturated fatty acids, and 2% polyunsaturated fatty acids. Of the saturated fatty acids, coconut oil is primarily 44.6% lauric acid, 16.8% myristic acid a 8.2% palmitic acid and 8% caprylic acid, although it contains seven different saturated fatty acids in total. Its only monounsaturated fatty acid is oleic acid while its only polyunsaturated fatty acid is linoleic acid. Unrefined coconut oil melts at 24-25°C (76°F) and smokes at 170°C (350°F), while refined coconut oil has a higher smoke point of 232°C (450°F).

Among the most stable of all oils, coconut oil is slow to oxidize and thus resistant to rancidity, lasting up to two years due to its high saturated fat content. In order to extend shelf life, it is best stored in solid form (i.e. below 24.5°C [76°F]). Virgin coconut oil is derived from fresh coconuts (rather than dried, as in copra). Most oils marketed as “virgin” are produced one of three ways:

1. Quick drying of fresh coconut meat which is then used to press out the oil.
2. Wet-milling (coconut milk). With this method the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat without drying first. “Coconut milk” is expressed first by pressing. The oil is then further separated from the water. Methods which can be used to separate the oil from the water include boiling, fermentation, refrigeration, enzymes and mechanical centrifuge.
3. Wet-milling (direct micro expelling). In this process, the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat after the adjustment of the water content, then the pressing of the coconut flesh results in the direct extraction of free-flowing oil.

Unlike olive oil, there is no world or governing body that sets a standard definition or set of guidelines to classify coconut oil as “virgin”. The Philippines has established a Department of Science and Technology (DOST) governmental standard. Refined coconut oil is referred to in the coconut industry as RBD (refined, bleached, and deodorized) coconut oil. The starting point is “copra”, the dried coconut meat. Copra can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying. The unrefined coconut oil extracted from copra (called “crude coconut oil”) is not suitable for consumption and must be refined.

Coconut oil is often partially or fully hydrogenated to increase their melting point in warmer temperatures. This increases the amount of saturated fat present in the oil, and may produce trans fats. “Fractionated coconut oil” is a fraction of the whole oil, in which most of the long-chain triglycerides are removed so that only saturated fats remain. It may also refer to as “caprylic/capric triglyceride” or medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil because mostly the medium-chain triglycerides caprylic and capric acid are left in the oil. Because it is completely saturated, fractionated oil is even more heat stable than other forms of coconut oil and has a nearly indefinite shelf life.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of reducing saturated fat in the diet, or partly replacing it with unsaturated fat, on the serum lipoprotein profile of human subjects. The study had two intervention periods, 8 weeks (phase 1) and 52 weeks (phase 2). In phase 1, total fat was reduced from 31 to 25 % energy (polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA): saturated fatty acids (SFA) ratio increased from 0´2 to 0´4) by reducing the quantity of coconut fat (CF) in the diet from 17´8 to 9´3 % energy intake. In phase 2, subjects were randomised to groups A and B. In group A total fat was reduced from 25 to 20 % energy (PUFA:SFA ratio increased from 0´4 to 0´7) by reducing the quantity of CF in the diet from 9´3 to 4´7 % total energy intake. In group B, the saturated fat content in the diet was similar to group A. In addition a test fat (a mixture of soyabean oil and sesame oil, PUFA:monosaturated fatty acids ratio 2) contributed 3´3 % total energy intake and total fat contributed 24 % energy intake (PUFA:SFA ratio increased from 0´7 to 1´1). At the end of phase 1, there was a 7´7 % reduction in cholesterol (95 % CI 23´6, 212´2) and 10´8 % reduction in LDL (95 % CI 24´9, 216´5) and no significant change in HDL and triacylglycerol. At the end of phase 2, the reduction in cholesterol in both groups was only about 4 % (95 % CI 212, 3´2) partly due the concomitant rise in HDL. The reduction in LDL at 52 weeks was significantly higher in group B (group A mean reduction 11 %, 95 % CI 220´1, 22´0 and group B mean reduction 16´2 % 95 % CI 223´5, 28´9). In phase 2, triacylglycerol levels showed a mean reduction of 6´5 % in group 2A and a mean increase of 8´2 % in group 2B. The reduction of saturated fat in the diet is associated with a lipoprotein profile that would be expected to reduce cardiovascular risk. The reduction of dietary saturated fat with partial replacement of unsaturated fat brings about changes in total cholesterol, HDL- and LDLcholesterol that are associated with a lower cardiovascular risk.

International comparisons suggest that diets high in saturated fatty acids (SFA) and low in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) increase the risk of CHD (Scrimshaw & Guzman, 1968; Kato et al. 1973; Robertson et al. 1977). Such diets have been shown to increase total cholesterol (TC) levels (Hegsted et al. 1965; Keys, 1980; Mensink & Katan, 1992; Hegsted et al. 1993) which enhances the risk of CHD (Stamler et al. 1986; Shrapnel et al. 1992). It is generally accepted that a reduction in the intake of SFA will lower TC and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) but there is no agreement on the type of nutrient that should replace it. Replacing SFA with n-6 PUFA causes a decline in TC

It has been suggested that part of the cholesterol lowering action of n-6 PUFA consists of lowering the levels of HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C). Indeed, Mattson & Grundy (1985) reported a reduction in HDL-C when linoleic acid in the diet contributes 28 % total energy intake. However, decreasing the intake of SFA by replacing some of it with PUFA has been reported to reduce TC and LDL-C without affecting HDL-C (Sanders et al. 1997).

Coconut fat (CF), a highly saturated fat (containing 76 g SFA/100 g fat, Table 1) has been a major source offat in the habitual Sri Lankan diet for many decades. Dietary fat contributes about 29 % total energy requirement and as much as 80 % fat in the habitual Sri Lankan diet is long-term effects on the serum lipoprotein profile when:

(1) CF content in the diet is reduced;

(2) CF in the diet is reduced and replaced with a combination of soyabean fat (PUFA) and sesame oil (oil of Sesamun indicum seed, containing 40 g MUFA/100 g fat).

Fasting (14 h) venous blood samples for analysis of cholesterol, TAG and lipoproteins were taken at the beginning and end of phase 1 and at 3, 6 and 12 months in phase 2 of the study. Serum TC and TAG were analysed by enzymatic colorimetric methods (Boehringer Mannheim GmbH. Mannheim, Germany). The inter- and intra-assay CV of the TC assay were both, 2´5 %. The inter- and intra-assay CV of the TAG assay were 3´5 and ,2´5 respectively. HDL-C was measured by selective precipitation with dextran sulfate and MgCl2 (Warnick et al. 1982). LDL-C assay was done directly using a direct LDL-C assay (Boehringer Mannheim GmbH). The inter- and intra-assay CV for HDL-C and LDL-C assays were both less than, 2,5 %.

coconut August 7, 2008

CHAPTER ONE

OPENING

A. BACKGROUND

Everyone definitely has a will to become useful for family, best friend even for somebody else far from his or her living. That’s mean we firstly must have own strategy to make our self comfort as we are. Use our time very well is one of many example. Because the times that God gives is limited, so that we cannot life forever. So, our opportunity to still alive must we use very well, do not for something that useless because it just waste our time.

Paragraph above tell about how important human in this world. Nowadays, we always think about our mother Earth that slowly but sure damaged cause human, as the highest creature than plants or animals. The scientist got surprised result about the one and only planet that have life inside. Cause, conscious or not, we was hurt our mother Earth’s heart. Illegal logging and pollution is small part from our action that makes Earth angry, cry and disappointed. So now the consequence is extreme climate changing and of course, the biggest effect is global warming.

Human was thinking a lot of solution to solve negative impact from that. For the example, to make thrifty vehicle, or gasoline from some plants, or alternative gasoline that not makes pollution. Not just it, government started makes step, like made rules about illegal logging. But not just few people disregard the rules. Without will and exert from human, nature and the component will really destroy. When human will fully realize about nature’s role in our whole life that is blessed from God?

We always forget God as the best Creator ever. We as human always forget our job to keep and to make everlasting so our grandson will see how great the one and only God.

Because of that, we must have to find out about other creatures. Not become selfish for our own sake. For example, the same things in big different of animals and plants. Like Darwin said, (that we called is Darwin hypothesis), human came from monkey. And the monkey became smart ancient human, that we called “Homo Sapiens”. But that is creatures cannot move like humans or animals. That is plants. Plants can absorbs CO2 from humans and animals respiration for make them food, with photosynthesis[1]. Cause of that, plants called autotrophy[2] creature. Humans and animals cannot make them food by themselves because they not have chlorophyll[3] like plants, especially green plants. In food chain, plants called producer, and in organized until highest level, human for example because an omnivore[4].

That is unique from plant’s behavior. Absorbs the bad thing and produce the useful things and good for anyone, include human. Different with human that always make nature damaged, but the actually humans has mind and intelligence that God gave just for human, so that human is the highest creatures level. In Hindu, they know about Siva as disturber God and very different with Brahman (The Creators God). That mean human can like Siva, as disturber and plants as Brahman as the creators.

Those things make plants deserve to we studied. Because there many good behavior from plants to become example for human. Coconut is not plants that enough famous like Wave of love, Antheridia, Rose, Jasmine, or other plants in high cost. But the benefit is very big, although not beautiful like flower. From root until leaf even the stem is very useful for humans and animals. In 2^nd Junior High School we were studied about modern life style in Religion. Modern life style was influence among Indonesian. Indeed, it is cannot we prohibit. The effects for the example, human became addicted to technology. It is make resources for fast will used up. Just for more information, the scary effect of modern life style is human can replace by mobile machine that we called robot. But not everything is negative. One of the positive things is technology can help human to finish they job faster than not use it. The scientific name for coconut is Cocos nucifera. Early Spanish explorers called it coco, which mean “monkey face” because the three indentations (eyes) on the hairy nut resemble the head and face monkey. Nucifera means “nut bearing”. The coconut provides a nutritious source of meat, juice, milk, and oil that has fed and nourished populations around the world for generation. On many islands coconut is a staple in the diet and provides the majority of the food eaten. Nearly one third of the world’s population depends on coconut has a long and respected history.

Coconut is highly nutritious and rich fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It is classified as a “functional food” because it provides many health benefits beyond it is nutritional content. Coconut oil is of special interest because it possesses healing properties far beyond that of any other dietary oil and is extensively used in traditional medicine among Asian and Pacific populations. Pacific Islanders consider coconut oil to be the cure for all illness. The coconut palm is so highly valued by them as both a source of food and medicine that it is called “The Tree of Life”. Only recently has modern medical science unlocked the secrets to coconut’s amazing healing powers.

People from many diverse cultures, language, religions, and races scattered around the globe have revered the coconut as a valuable source of both food and medicine. Wherever the coconut palm grows the people have learned of it is importance as an effective medicine. For thousands of years coconut products have held a respected and valuable place in local folk medicine.

Most of you must be familiar and even tasted coconut water. Coconut water is most popular natural drink of tropical areas like Pacific Islands, Southern Asia, South America, Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida, Central America, etc. After water it is considered to be purest natural and healthy drink. Basically coconut water is obtained from unripe coconuts.

Among different between plants, animals and human, there are some same things. Like they grow and felt develop in physic. Just way to act and think made between them look different. Because of that human have responsibility to keep them everlasting, so our child and grandchild can keep them too.

Uniquely, plants can grow toward to light but still in effect of gravitation that found by Sir Isaac Newton. The Biologist, Johann Gregor Mendel explains plants looking for light because they very need it to do the photosynthesis process. One more thing the uniquely thing about plants habits, they moving get closer to light. Cause God is the light source for His child. With gravitation that has effect to all aspect of life in this world, especially plants in period to growth.

Students in school environment have to sharpen for they can organize well. Like Boy Scout. Boy Scout help students to be obedient in every act of they activity for not on wrong way. For example is cross country. For not in wrong way, Boy Scout must follow the symbols or direction from they guidance to not being lost. There are others benefits, students closer with nature. This intended to inviting students more love nature without damage it.

Boy Scout activity intended to practice students become useful fully, like the symbol (in Indonesia especially) that is coconut’s bud. Basically, coconuts from root until the leaves stem is good to beneficial depended our willingness. Hopefully Boy Scout as nation’s bud that will forward development and progress from government will become useful and can pledged to make it come true.

Our Boy Scout’s father that is Ir. Soekarno keep going on the good meaning from Badan Powell to make all students not waste time for something that not useful for our life. According to him, coconut is compatible to becoming the Boy Scout’s symbols with brown effect.

For the example the handicraft that can yielding beautiful bag (picture no 1.1). It is not easy to make that interest with market that always change according to trend and life style that not always static in some situations, but always move like water that sometimes flow with calm but sometimes quick. Moreover the farmer difficult to make consumer sure with the quality because they mostly like brands or import.

The root can made seat for take a rest for while with coconut water under leafy another coconuts in noon. Coconut stem can made bridge for little river, masionette, decoration, or firewood. The Coconut stem is high for commonly coconut. Cause with fiber coconut, food will always straight to top, so it growth not to aside.

Coconut young leave generally used for wedding in traditional ceremony or for wrapping steamed rice for Moslem when “Idul Fitri” and also for meal to guess in some event. Beside that, steamed rice can trade in food market. Cause coconut young leave can durable and not arouse smell. And so strong to fill with rice and can made to something unique or economic goods.

There is story about young coconut leave in Indonesia’s history to dissipating colonist. At that rime, Dutch is the one and only colonist in Indonesia. Our warrior intending to grab our land from the colonist. At that time, Soeharto is a high leader. If they attack the colonists, the colonial always know and give feed back. So, they think hardly how to make the colonial does not know about they plan. Cause of that, Soeharto thought up to deceiving the colonists. Because Indonesia has many coconuts in every where, he thought to use coconut young leave to attack the colonists without known by everybody. With tactics and brilliant strategy, our hero used coconut young leave as headband so that the Dutch does not known about they plan. That is code for them, who ever include Indonesian against the colonists. In fact, Indonesian has smart tactic and brilliants strategy to dissipating colonists. With high willingness, the Dutch gave up and dissipated from our land because our warriors attack when they fall asleep and dreamed to mastering Indonesia. But dream is still dream because their unready.

The coconut leaf bone can be made broom. Usually togetherness, association, and union assumed with one string rib. Because one rib cannot sweep big yard, full of dump. But one string rib can clean up and sweep caused there is a lot of rib work for one reason. So that, this thing became inspiration for Soekarno to unite the nation Indonesia, caused by a lot of dissolution was arising out in every parts of Indonesia caused the selfish of each area defend the each part willingness.

And also the rib can be made by a learn medium mathematical of child. Rib can be bound and become the numerator media for children. Not only that, rib also can become the play medium for children.

Coconut has much usefulness. The usefulness for health with deeply can find in chapter two. But surely, coconut is delicious to eat. Coconut flesh can eaten with other blending things. Like stone sugar to consume with the water. And eat with family, school, or other event, formal or may not.

Frond of coconut cab we make as smolder, which have functioned same with shell of coconut that the flesh was grated. The shell can used to many need depended by creativity and activity. There is other function of coconut, which is limiting home area or maybe agriculture area. Even limiting one country with the other.

But nowadays, modernization was slowly undermining culture. Modernization in medical or other technology removed human creativity to use nature without exploited too much.

Modernization term take from Latin, modernus that formed by two words, that is modo it means lately/nowadays and ernus, showed about present period. Because of that, modernization definition is process to gone through for now or maybe to “present” time period.

According to Astrid S. Susanto, modernization is chance of development process that gave by changing for progress. Little different with Astrid, Koentjaraningrat, modernization is willingness to life with era and world’s constellation now. Meanwhile, according Soerjono Soekanto, modernization is social changing form that usually as directed change based from some planning that called social planning.

Different with Alex Thio. According to him, modernization is some social changing form like society of agriculture changing becomes industry society. In United Kingdom (UK), revolutionary history change bigger than the other. Before that, UK society riling agriculture, but at the moment, slowly factories arise in UK.

Meanwhile, according to Astrid A Susanto, the effect is:

a. Difficulty in agriculture;

b. Agriculture production still hinging to individual;

c. Cause trained person more needed especially in long time;

d. More high and more specializing;

e. Moving or mobility work in society;

f. Country have role in production and management;

g. Improving consumption in a lot of kinds in production system.

In modernization, health now has touched by technology. We must know health means cause it very important to our life.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This definition which was ratified during the first World Health Assembly has not been modified since 1948. Therefore health maybe regarded as a balance of physical, mental and social aspects of life in a being.

Physical fitness is a good bodily health, and is the result of regularly exercise, proper diet and nutrition and proper rest for physical recovery. A strong indicator of the health of population is height, which is generally increased by improving nutrition and health care, and is also major factor in people height. The study of human growth, it is regulator and it is implications is known as Auxology.

Mental health refers to a human individual’s emotional and physiological well-being. Merriam-Webster defines mental health as “A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities function in society and meet the ordinary demands of every day life”. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no one “official” definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all effect how “mental health” is defined. In general, most experts agree that “mental health” and “mental illness” are not opposites. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not necessarily an indicator of mental health.

One way to think about mental health is by looking at how effectively and successfully a person functions. Feeling capable and component, being able to handle normal levels of stress, maintain satisfying relationships, and lead an independent life, and being able to “bounce back” or recover from difficult situation, are all signs of mental health.

Encompassing your emotional social, and most importantly your mental well being. All these aspects, emotional physical and social, must function together to achieve over all health.

The LaLonde Report suggested that there are four general determinants of health including human biology, environment, life style, and health care services. Thus, health is maintained and improved not only through the efforts and intelligent life style choices of the individual and society.

A major environmental factor is water quality, especially for the health of infants and children in developing countries. And about self care, achieving health and remaining healthy is an active process. Effective strategies for staying healthy and improving one’s health include the following elements.

Like the picture about food pyramid that published in 2005, the updated USDA, is generally nutrition guide for recommended food consumption. Nutrition is the science that studies how what people eat affects their health and performance such as foods or food components that cause disease or deteriorate health (such as eating too many calories, which are a major contributing factor to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease). The field of nutrition also studies food and dietary supplements that improve performance, promote health, and cure or prevent disease, such as eating fibrous foods to reduce the risk of colon cancer, or supplementing with vitamin C to strength then teeth and gums and to improve the immune system.

Personal health depends partially on the social structure of one’s life. The maintenance of strong social relation ships is linked to good health conditions, longevity, productivity, and a positive social interactions as viewed by the participants increases many chemical levels in the brain which are linked to personality and the intelligence traits. Essentially this means that positive reinforcement from a third party make one more socially adept, in control, and relaxed physically and mentally, all of which are proven to effect the nervous system (UHF).

More about sport, sport nutrition focused on how food an dietary supplements affect athletic performance (during events), improvements (from training) and recovery (after events and training). One goal of sports nutrition is to maintain glycogen levels and prevent glycogen depletion. Another is to optimize energy levels and muscle tone. And athlete’s strategy for winning an events may include a schedule for the entire seasons of what to eat, when to eat it, and in what precise quantities (before, during, after, and between work outs and events). Participants in endurance sports such as the full-distance triathlons actually eat during their races. Sports nutrition works hand in hand with sports medicine.

Exercise is the performance of movements in order to develop or maintain physical fitness and overall health. It is often directed toward also honing athletic ability or skill. Frequent and regular physical exercise is an important component in the prevention of some of the disease of affluence such as cancer, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, obesity and back pain. Exercises are generally grouped in three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body.

• Flexibility exercise such as stretching improve the range of motion of muscles and joints

• Aerobic exercises such as walking and running focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance and muscle density

• Anaerobic exercises such as weight training or sprinting increase muscle mass and strength

Physical exercise is considered important for maintaining physical fitness including healthy weight, building and maintaining healthy bones, muscle, and joints, promoting physiological well-being, reducing surgical risks and strengthening the immune system.

Proper nutrition is just as not more, important to health as exercise. When exercising it becomes even more important to have good diet to ensure the body has the correct ratio of macronutrients whilst providing ample micronutrient, this is to did the body with the recovery process following strenuous exercise. When the body falls short of proper nutrition, it gets in to starvation mode developed through evolution and depends on to fat content for survival. Researches suggest that the production of thyroid hormones can be negatively affected by repeated bouts of dieting and calorie restriction. Proper rest and recovery is also as important to health exercise, otherwise the body exists in a permanently injured state and will not improve or adapt adequately to the exercise.

The above two factors can be compromised by the psychological compulsions (eating disorders, such as exercise bulimia, anorexia, and other bulimias), misinformation a lack of organization, or a lack of motivation. These all lead a decreased state of health.

Delayed onset muscle soreness can occur after any exercise, particularly if the body is in an unconditioned state relative to that exercise and the exercise involves repetitive eccentric contractions.

Health has relation with hygiene. Hygiene is the practice of keeping the body clean to prevent infection and illness and the avoidance of contact with infectious agents. Hygiene practices include bathing, brushing and flossing teeth, washing hands especially before eating, washing food before it is eaten, cleaning food preparation utensils and surface before and after preparing meals, and many others. This may help prevent infection and illness. By cleaning the body, dead skin cells are washed away with the germs, reducing their chance of entering the body.

Now more about physiology disturbing, it is stress. Prolonged psychological stress may negatively impact health, such as by weakening the immune system. Stress management is the application of methods to either reduce stress or increase tolerance to stress. Certain notropic do both. Exercising to improve physical fitness boosts the immune system and increases stress tolerance. Relaxation techniques are physical methods used to relieve stress. Examples include sexual intercourse, progressive relaxation and fractional relaxation. Psychological methods include cognitive therapy, meditation, and positive thinking which work by reducing response to stress. Improving relevant skills and abilities builds confidence which also reduces the stress reaction to situation where those skills are applicable. Reducing uncertainty, by increasing knowledge and experience related to stress causing situations, has the same effect. Learning to the cope with problems better, such as improving problem solving and time management skills, may also reduce stressful reaction to problems. Repeatedly facing an object of one’s fears may also desensitize the fight or flight response with respect to that stimulus, facing bullies may reduce fear of bullies.

Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”. The organized provision of such services may constitute a health care system. This can include a specific governmental organization such as the National Health Services in the United Kingdom (UK) or cooperation across the National Health Service in the UK, and social services in shared care.

Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organization, public and private, communities and individuals. “It is concerned with treats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. This population in question can be as small as a handful of people or as large as fall the inhabitants of several continents (for instance, in the case of a pandemic). Public health has many sub-fields, but is typically divided in to the categories of epidemiology, biostatistics and health service. Environmental, social and behavioral health and occupational health are also important fields in public health.

The focus of public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities in many cases treating a disease can be vital to preventing it in others, such as during an outbreak of an infectious disease. Vaccination programs and distribution of condoms are examples of public health measure.

Health science is the best branch of science focused on health and it includes many sub disciplines. There are two approaches to health science, the study and research of the human body and health related issues to understand how humans ( and animals) function, and the application of that knowledge to improve health and to prevent and cure diseases.

Health research builds primarily on the basic sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics as well as a variety of multidisciplinary fields (for the example medical sociology). Some of the other primarily research. Oriental fields that make exceptionally significant contributions to health science are biochemistry, epidemiology, and genetics.

B. Delimitation of problems

This work paper talks about coconut influence to health. But it is too wide and more specialization, so this topic is just talks about that. From many existing problems, writer can not study it as a whole, because considering existing ability of intellectual goodness, expense and time owned by the writer very limited. Because of that, writer requires giving the problem limited too. Problem demarcation needed to clarify the problems which wish solved. So, writer limiting the topic about human health and generally coconut, not “sawit coconut” or hybrid coconut. So the reader can understand deeply about this work paper’s topic.

C. Identification of problems

Nowadays, mostly people do not realize about their own health. They became busy and choose to became an executive work-a-holic to fulfill their need to still alive. They just care about what they will cloth on this day, next day and after next day. Mostly of our as human being, not realize about our health. We do not care; because we know, doctor and nurse will take care of us. But, just jogging for about ten minutes, we can feel health and mostly important, we less our body weight. Especially for women to flirting man, with they sexy and fascinated body.

But they know health is thin. If we too thin, we were sick. So, we must know what the proportional body. And most important, we must know what the health is. And writer specialize the influence of coconut to human’s health. Being health is dreams for all people. Not one in this world to sick for a long time. But why humans want to health? There is many hypotheses to answer that with vicarious reasons. And how we can get health? Mostly is doing health modern life style. Like do not smoke, do not consume alcohol or others things that potentially can damaged for our body. So that we can concluding the problem and challenge about that. There is:

1. What the influence of coconut to human health?

2. What disease that coconut can remediable inside human’s body?

3. How the process of coconut healing to disease?

D. Benefit of work paper

Every things in this world have own benefit to own self, or other living things. So that this work paper. And writer hopes this work paper can become useful for anybody that read this. And the advantageous really used for good purpose not for criminality and kinds of that.

There is so much benefit that reader can take. That is:

• To add knowledge for reader, understanding about coconut, health and relation between them;

• To help researcher find solving of their problems;

• To become reference for anybody need this information

• To enriching society minds about coconut and health

E. Methods of Writing

In every jobs, we need methods so the result same with reality and not fabricate. So that in working, writer used some methods to collect data and get result from that. There is:

1. Questioner

This methods means to make reader know about reality in society. Cause not every human know deeply about coconut, health or the relation between them. And the questioner shared to 20 respondents without differentiating among them.

2. Interview

This method just to persons knows more about coconut, health, and relation between them. Like VCO seller, doctor, and the coconut farmer.

3. Reference

This method is usually used for every work paper. Cause with this, writer can make hypothesis so questioner and interview can done with well. The references is book, newspaper, magazine, and internet.

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[1] Plants make they own food with use sunlight and chlorophyll

[2] Behavior of plants, that can make they own food

[3] Plants green substance

[4] Eat meet and plants

August 7, 2008

chapter-one1

poetry February 27, 2008

 TANPA CINTA…

HIDUP LAKSANA POHON TANPA BUNGA DAN BUAH

TAPI,DENGAN CINTA PULALAH

HIDUP BAGAIKAN BERJALAN DIATAS DURI CINTA …

MEMANG YANG TERBAIK DAN YANGPALING MENYENANGKAN

DIA JUGA BISA MENJADI RACUN BAGI KEHIDUPAN CINTA…

ADALAH KETURUNAN KECOCOKAN JIWA

KARENA CINTA,

DUNIA DIPELIHARA

KARENA CINTA

 TIAP MAKHLUK MEMPERTAHANKAN DIRI 

BILA CINTA MEMANGGILMU

IKUTILAH DIAWALAU JALANNYA BERLIKU-LIKU

 JANGAN MENGIRA

KAU DAPAT MENENTUKAN ARAH JALANNYA CINTA

KARENA BILA KAU DIPANGGIL

DIA YANG MENENTUKAN PERJALANAN HIDUPMU 

CINTA…ADALAH KEINDAHAN SEJATI YANG TERLETAK

PADA KESERASIAN SPIRITUAL

TAK MEMBERIKAN APAPUN

KECUALI KESELURUHAN DIRINYA KARENA KEMURAHAN HATI

TAK BERARTI MEMBERI APAPUN YANG KAU BUTUHKAN

TAPI MEMBERINYA

LEBIH DARI YANG KAU BUTUHKAN 

APABILA KAU MENCINTAI SESEORANG

HAKIKATNYA KAU SEDANG BELAJAR SESUATUMENGENAI DIRIMU SENDIRI 

                                                                                                           

vale!!!! February 14, 2008

History of Valentine’s Day
Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday?

The history of Valentine’s Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance. St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.

So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.
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valentine day February 14, 2008

Valentine’s Day History
There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine’s Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine”. Other aspects of the story say that Saint Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine.
Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.

In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800’s and now the date is very commercialised. The town of Loveland, Colorado, does a large post office business around February 14. The spirit of good continues as valentines are sent out with sentimental verses and children exchange valentine cards at school.

The History of Saint Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.
The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine’s Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way.

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St. Valentine’s Story

Let me introduce myself. My name is Valentine. I lived in Rome during the third century. That was long, long ago! At that time, Rome was ruled by an emperor named Claudius. I didn’t like Emperor Claudius, and I wasn’t the only one! A lot of people shared my feelings.
Claudius wanted to have a big army. He expected men to volunteer to join. Many men just did not want to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their wives and families. As you might have guessed, not many men signed up. This made Claudius furious. So what happened? He had a crazy idea. He thought that if men were not married, they would not mind joining the army. So Claudius decided not to allow any more marriages. Young people thought his new law was cruel. I thought it was preposterous! I certainly wasn’t going to support that law!

Did I mention that I was a priest? One of my favourite activities was to marry couples. Even after Emperor Claudius passed his law, I kept on performing marriage ceremonies — secretly, of course. It was really quite exciting. Imagine a small candlelit room with only the bride and groom and myself. We would whisper the words of the ceremony, listening all the while for the steps of soldiers.

One night, we did hear footsteps. It was scary! Thank goodness the couple I was marrying escaped in time. I was caught. (Not quite as light on my feet as I used to be, I guess.) I was thrown in jail and told that my punishment was death.

I tried to stay cheerful. And do you know what? Wonderful things happened. Many young people came to the jail to visit me. They threw flowers and notes up to my window. They wanted me to know that they, too, believed in love.

One of these young people was the daughter of the prison guard. Her father allowed her to visit me in the cell. Sometimes we would sit and talk for hours. She helped me to keep my spirits up. She agreed that I did the right thing by ignoring the Emperor and going ahead with the secret marriages. On the day I was to die, I left my friend a little note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. I signed it, “Love from your Valentine.”

I believe that note started the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine’s Day. It was written on the day I died, February 14, 269 A.D. Now, every year on this day, people remember. But most importantly, they think about love and friendship. And when they think of Emperor Claudius, they remember how he tried to stand in the way of love, and they laugh — because they know that love can’t be beaten!

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Valentine Traditions
Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine’s Day. They went singing from home to home. One verse they sang was:
Good morning to you, valentine;
Curl your locks as I do mine —
Two before and three behind.
Good morning to you, valentine.

In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, “You unlock my heart!”

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

A love seat is a wide chair. It was first made to seat one woman and her wide dress. Later, the love seat or courting seat had two sections, often in an S-shape. In this way, a couple could sit together — but not too closely!

Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off.

Pick a dandelion that has gone to seed. Take a deep breath and blow the seeds into the wind. Count the seeds that remain on the stem. That is the number of children you will have.

If you cut an apple in half and count how many seeds are inside, you will also know how many children you will have.

Hello world! February 14, 2008

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