ORP and Correlation
with Reducing Activity
Oxidation
Reduction Potential (ORP)
is a commonly-used measure in physical chemistry for denoting the
oxidation
or reduction power of a substance, usually a liquid. It is
measured
in millivolts (mv.) on a scale from -1,200 (most strongly reducing) to
+1,200 (most strongly oxidizing). A reading at or
below approximately
zero (0) strongly, although indirectly, indicates an increasing
concentration
of the negative hydrogen ion. For example, a reading of -800
mv.
would often indicate a strongly reducing solution, often with strong
antioxidant
properties, and could indicate the presence of large amounts of H-minus
ions in the solution.
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A Quick Note:
Relative Hydrogen
Score, aka rH Score, an Absolute Measure
of Hydrogen Reducing
Power Calculated from ORP and pH
Measures For a brief tutorial on
the Relative
Hydrogen Score, or rH score, please
see the
on-site page devoted to that topic! rH score is an
absolute measure
of hydrogen reducing power (and of oxidizing power) which is
independent
of changes in pH, and which is calculated from measures of ORP and pH.
So, we have seen above
that ORP (ORP) is
a commonly-used measure in physical chemistry for denoting the
oxidation
or reduction power of a substance, usually a liquid. It is
measured
in millivolts (mv.) on a scale from -1,200 (most strongly reducing) to
+1,200 (most strongly oxidizing). However, notice that this
is a
"sometimes" correlation which does not always hold true in
either
direction. Thus, a water solution of a compound with a
strongly negative
ORP may show no reducing and antioxidant activity, and a water solution
(of certain compounds dissolved in the water) with strong
antioxidant
(reducing) activity may show a modestly positive ORP.
Here
are some quick points on the whole
topic: - a aqueous product does
not need to have a
strongly negative ORP to have nutritional antioxidant properties
(reducing
ability) in biochemical systems. Witness vitamin C, vitamin
E, beta
carotene, citric acid, and a host of other biologically active
substances
with higher molecular weights (that that of H or O). Indeed,
a number
of these substances named herein show a pretty strongly positive ORP,
and
yet, in certain specific biochemical situations, will indeed donate an
electron to a molecule ( a free radical) needing one, thus acting as an
antioxidant.
- conversely, a strongly
negative ORP does not
necessarily say anything at all about antioxidant properties. It is
OFTEN
correlated to antioxidant properties, but not always. Some
examples
follow:
- If you bubble
hydrogen gas (H2) from
a commercial storage tank through water, the ORP will drop to about
-690
or even further. However, any standard assay of chemical or
biochemical
antioxidant properties, or of chemical reduction properties, will show
ZERO activity.
- On the other hand, ERW
ionized water
and water containing MegaH™ (aka
Active H-, MegaH-™ or MegaHydrin™)
not only show a strongly negative ORP, but also strong reducing and
antioxidant
effects in both chemical and biochemical (life-type) reactions, as
determined
by a number of standard assays of such activity.
- Just
as some substances with strongly positive
ORP are highly toxic (witness chlorine bleach and hydrogen peroxide),
so
it is true that some substances with strongly negative ORP are toxic as
well. For example, dissolve sodium hydroxide in water
(CAREFULLY!
or YOU WILL BE BURNED OR BLINDED!), and the ORP becomes modestly
negative,
but yet it is toxic due to its alkalinity. Another great
example
is lithium hydride. This substance shows a strongly negative
ORP,
and yet is incredibly toxic.
-
the ORP
correlation with antioxidant activity
tends, among other limitations and qualifications, to apply only to
substances
with very small molecular weight. Thus, water and the
negative hydrogen
ion may be in the ballpark, but larger molecules with molecular weight
in the hundreds or thousands (vitamin C, vitamin E, citric acid, beta
carotene,
alpha lipoic acid, pycogenol) hold onto their free electron in another
way, and so it is no apparent or available in a simple aqueous
solution.
Some illustrations
follow: In the early days
when MegaH™ (aka
MegaH-™) was first marketed, a
modest number of degreed
folks with traditional scientific backgrounds (and a bit of paradigm
paralysis!)
scoffed at the idea that the substance could contain hydrogen, and that
it could contain the negative hydrogen ion. However, in any
of half-dozen
cases of which this author has heard, these scientists were invited to
dissolve some MegaH™ (aka
MegaH-™) in water, and then add a
bit of
a mild acid. Immediately, the mixture started foaming and
producing
gas bubbles. Subsequent flame tests showed that the gas was
hydrogen,
as did breathing the gas, which produced even higher-pitched vocal
effects
than did breathing helium. Next, some of the more rear-guard mainstream scientists, while yielding
on the hydrogen and ORP issues, claimed that products such as MegaH and
Megahydrate could not possibly exhibit true reducing activity
(antioxidant activity) in a biological system. By this time, a
number of studies had been performed on MegaH in independent
private and university laboratories which had demonstrated that MegaH
showed not only reducing activity in standard chemical assays, but strong
antioxidant effects in standard biochemical (in vitro) assays, some of
them using live cells. As these results became known, mainstream skeptics
started to back off from their ridicule of this family of extremely low
molecular weight (ELMW) nutritional supplement products. Finally, as NMR
sutdies performed by independent laboratories confirmed the presence of
ample amounts of unique silica hydrides and caged (protected) hydride
ions, the resistance on the part of rear-guard mainstream resarcher
subsided even further...But this leads us to the
next point: How
can one easily tell if a solution which shows a strongly negative ORP
truly
has reducing properties? As mentioned above, there are a
number of
standard chemical and biochemical assays, or tests, which can be
performed
in any well-equipped lab, to measure just that quality. But.
. .
. what if you just need a quick indication, and do not have
access
to a lab? Well, here are two quick tests:
- A
water solution with a strongly negative
ORP but which demonstrates no true chemical reducing activity must
therefore
contain large amounts of dissolved diatomic hydrogen (H2)
gas. Therefore,
one quick test for any solution showing strongly negative ORP is to
place
it in a laboratory de-gasser (a type of ultrasonic bath) and drive off
any dissolved gases for an hour. After the de-gassing
procedure,
if the water still exhibits a strongly negative ORP, then it is likely
a truly reducing medium, whereas if the ORP has regressed to the
positive
range, then the low ORP was due only to dissolved H2 gas.
- for various quirky
reasons, the phenols and
other compounds which cause the bright (red/purple) coloring of grape
juice
can be easily bleached (resulting in loss of color intensity) by
solutions
with true reducing activity, but not by substances with strong
oxidizing
activity (within certain reasonable limits, that is.) Nor
will the
color intensity of grape juice be easily bleached by pH changes, as in
the case of strongly acidic or alkaline solutions. Therefore,
this
author has demonstrated that frozen grape juice concentrate can act as
a quick indicator of true reducing activity. Normally, one
would
add about one ounce of water to each of five or six empty
beakers.
Next, one would add about ten drops of grape juice concentrate to the
one
ounce of water in each beaker, and stir well. The water will turn
reddish-purple.
Then, one would add 3 ounces of distilled water to one beaker as a
control,
and to each of the other beakers, add 3 onces of whatever substances
(dissolved
in water) which one wished to test. If any beakers, now each
full
to the 4 ounce mark, shows strongly lessened color intensity, this is a
good indicator of reducing activity. However, this test will not work
easily
unless the reducing water solution added to the beakers for testing has
an ORP of about -500 mv or stronger. Substances which are
more weakly
reducing will exhibit such small effects in color intensity that
differentiation
may become difficult without a spectrophotometer.
MegaHydrin™
, MegaH
and MegaH-™ are registered trademarks owned by Flantech Group.
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