Friday, November 18, 2011

The Chemistry Behind Red Bull

Red Bull
Red Bull, no not a male cow that happens to be unexplainably red. I’m talking about the energy drink, the one that gives you “wings”. Most people don’t put much thought about what they’re in-taking when they drink this drink, but there is a chemistry behind it and I’m going to tell you what it is! C12H22O11, sugar, is a content of this drink, 27 grams of it to be exact. It’s a pretty common thing for sugar to give you that boost, but there’s more to Red Bull and it’s wings than just that. Another chemical in it is one that your body can produce, it’s called Glucuronolactone and has a chemical formula of C6H8O6 (600mg per can). It is a precursor of the next thing in Red Bull, Taurine, which has a chemical formula of C2H7NO3S (1000mg per can). The Taurine can actually help hypertentension, that is being learned and studied, and also is lowering blood-pressure. There is also caffine in this drink, about 80mgs of it per every can. That itself gives us a little boost. Then we mix in the B6Vitamins. All of its chemical ingredients are either already found in our body helping us stay awake and reactive or have been tested on their own to help keep things alert and ready. However, mix them together in an apple flavored drink, you get Red Bull. One of the most popular energy drinks yet. When the chemicals are mixed together amongst the caffeine and B6 Vitamins, there’s a reaction, safe for us to drink, and bonded together to give us a good wake up call and keep us going. However, at some point most of us all do suffer a crash from this jittery boost of energy. A dysfunction in the chemical structure and reactants? Or is it just something our body can’t handle? There’s also more to what this Taurine in it does for us, it can reduce the urinary tract infections and helps build and maintain muscle mass. This group of chemicals that we can consume, is a well choice, more beneficial from the taurine than soda or coffee, so maybe soon doctors will encourage us to take it. Just not too much of it. Too much of anything, isn’t always a good thing.



Resource: http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2006/06/pop_science_the_chemisty_behin.php

2 comments:

  1. Thanks bro u just helped me in completing my homework

    ReplyDelete
  2. Its mixed with alchohol Yes or no please said me?

    ReplyDelete