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Author: Subject: Chemicals from Urine? Anything useful?
DraconicAcid
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[*] posted on 9-9-2013 at 08:05


Quote: Originally posted by mayko  
If you check out Experiments in Organic Chemistry by Louis Fieser, 1941 (available from the forum library), there is a chapter on isolating urea from urine, as well as a chapter on eating sodium benzoate to increase the hippuric acid content of urine before isolation.

The latter in particular sounds like an interesting experiment that would never be done in a modern university.

It was still in the lab manual in 1991 at the University of Alberta.




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Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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ElectroWin
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[*] posted on 9-9-2013 at 14:38


Quote: Originally posted by PickledPackratParalysis  
I just noticed that some of my bottled pee had evaporated, and the sides of the container were coated with whitish-yellow 'salt'.


check for: sodium bicabonate, and urea nitrate

fresh urine has virtually no nitrates, but after it has fermented awhile in air, (especially in the dark), bacteria make nitrates. and urea nitrate is sparingly soluble so i think you should find it in there. Naquet, 1855: principles of chemistry gives a method for preparing pure urea from urine. If you want to try this I suggest evaporating at reduced pressure, to speed the process without creating biuret.

the bicarbonate will be in there if there has been enough time to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.


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phlogiston
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[*] posted on 10-9-2013 at 00:42


Quote: Originally posted by zed  

Might be small amounts of really valuable stuff even in average urine. Antigen-Antibody complexes, and whatnot.


In the Netherlands, urine from pregnant women is collected on a very large scale (about 30000 liters a week) and used to isolate Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG), a hormone. It is used to prepare a drug to treat infertility problems. I have been told this is the only country where this is done.

On a side note, for those interested in the history of discoveries, the last author in the ref posted by solo:

Quote: Originally posted by solo  
Reference Information
Isolation and identification of morphine 3- and 6-glucuronides, morphine 3,6-diglucuronide, morphine 3-ethereal sulfate, normorphine, and normorphine 6-glucuronide as morphine metabolites in humans
S. Y. Yeh C. W. Gorodetzky H. A. Krebs
Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Volume 66, Issue 9, pages 1288–1293, September 1977
DOI: 10.1002/jps.2600660921


is the famous Hans Krebs, best known for his discovery of several very important metabolic pathways in the early 30's, including the citric acid cycle (or 'Krebs cycle') and the urea cycle and winning the nobel prize in medicine in 1953.

[Edited on 10-9-2013 by phlogiston]




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kt5000
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[*] posted on 2-12-2013 at 22:59


Quote: Originally posted by PickledPackratParalysis  
I just noticed that some of my bottled pee


You bottle pee?? :P Urea, man, lots of urea. Good for fertilizing lawns and damn near anything else, iirc.
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UnintentionalChaos
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[*] posted on 2-12-2013 at 23:24


It is really odd that this thread surfaces again...I was just considering doing the prep of hippuric acid...




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thebean
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[*] posted on 3-12-2013 at 08:58


I few months back I was told that adding NaCl to urine could produce ammonia over a few months. Being inquisitive I did so and discovered after about five months that there was no NaCl, but a deep green insoluble. Could anyone tell me what this green insoluble might be?



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eidolonicaurum
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[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 05:41


You can get urea from urine, and white phosphorus. Much else is usually so low in concentration as not to be worth it. Unless you're really desperate.........

Urea can be extracted like this:
Boil down urine so smaller volume to deal with (you are going to need litres of raw material)
Add calcium chloride (chalk + hcl) -> precipitates calcium cyanate because urea <--> ammonium cyanate
Filter off, and powder up.
Boil with ammonium sulphate solution to form precipitate of calcium sulphate and urea solution.
Filter off calcium sulphate, and boil down. Urea will come out of solution.

Phosphorus:
Boil down urine to solid, and keep heating until no more change occurs. Grind up the white solid (chuck the black stuff) with sand and aluminium powder, then heat in a retort to the highest temperature you can reach. The hotter the better. Condense all vapours under water. Hopefully, you will have some (impure) white phosphorus.

Good luck! Let me know if the phosphorus one works, if you ever do it.

[Edited on 2-1-2014 by eidolonicaurum]
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eidolonicaurum
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[*] posted on 2-1-2014 at 05:57


I just saw an earlier post of yours, and it looks like you are going to need to get some more chemicals from somewhere if you want to do the interesting things. I mean, theres a suprising amount you can get OTCwise, but you just have to know where to look. Its also quite ridiculous how much you can get on ebay/amazon etc. Another place is sites where schools get their chemicals from, like philip harris, though they can be more/quite expensive.
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