Chemistry Alchemist - 19-9-2011 at 06:26
For alot of home amuture chemists, its hard to get some chemicals, so you need to look every where to get them. Listerine Mouth wash contains at least
5 chemicals, these are per 1ml of listerine;
0.93mg Zinc Chloride
0.22ml Ethanol
1.50mg Benzoic Acid
0.64mg Thymol
0.92mg Eucalyptol
Now i dont know much uses for the last 2 chemicals but the first 3 could be useful.
The Listerine i buy comes in 1000ml bottles, so do the math, each 1000mls contain;
0.9 grams of Zinc Chloride (not much at all)
220 mls of Ethanol (pretty good amount, can be used as a solvent)
150.0 grams of Benzoic Acid (good organic Acid)
64.0 grams of Thymol
92.0 grams of Eucalyptol
Fell free to correct my calculations if they are wrong 
Now to the extraction process, Evaporate or distill the alcohol away, Thymol is insoluble in water but soluble in the alcohol, so it should
precipitate out, also 2.9g/L of benzoic acid is soluble in water so that should also precipitate out, how would you seperate the Benzoic Acid from the
Thymol?
Eucalyptol is a colourless liquid that liquid that boils at 176 degrees C.
Evaporate the water to leave Zinc Chloride
Is there anything else in Mouth wash that could be extracted? does all this info sound about right?
[Edited on 19-9-2011 by Chemistry Alchemist]
barley81 - 19-9-2011 at 07:27
Your calculations are wrong.
There would be:
0.9g ZnCl<sub>2</sub>
220g alcohol
1.5g benzoic acid
0.64g thymol
0.92g eucalyptol
in 1 kg of that particular kind of listerine (probably the flavored kind).
It's not worth extracting anything from it except maybe the alcohol.
Distill the alcohol off and then purify it with a second distillation.
But it's easier to get denatured alcohol or Everclear (ask an adult, state your purpose) than to get alcohol from listerine. If you want it, get
Walmart brand antiseptic mouthwash (the brown kind, cheap).
White Yeti - 13-11-2011 at 13:46
It's incredible all the junk you can find in mouthwash. I make my own, I dilute down some OTC H2O2 to a reasonable concentration and that's it.
There's no reason to think that all the other junk in there is good for you, just because it comes in a fancy bottle.
jsc - 14-11-2011 at 17:22
Zinc Chloride is widely available commercially. It can be synthesized off the shelf from zinc oxide (zinc health supplements) and hydrochloric acid.
Ethyl alcohol can be obtained from any pharmacy and the bittering agent removed by evaporation (the bittering agent is a solid). The acetone (or other
ketones) can be separated via distillation or precipitation via Sodium Bisulfite.
Obtaining benzoic acid is best done commercially, but can be done in the lab and is a common undergraduate lab exercise (see a lab textbook).
DeathAdder - 2-12-2011 at 17:06
Excuse me whit yeti, you might like ben goldacres book Bad Science.
White Yeti - 2-12-2011 at 18:01
Thanks for the suggestion DeathAdder. But I'm more than aware of all the bad science that seems to plague our society.
It's sad how capitalism has really diverted our interest from making products that are purely functional to products that look nice, smell or taste
good. The reason mouthwash has all those additives is so that it tastes and smells good, not because those ingredients are effective against cavities
and bacteria. Same goes for toothpaste and deodorant (to a certain extent). I'm afraid this has nothing to the thread, so I'll stop there.
Welcome to the forum!