Chemistry in Everyday Life Test - 5

Tranquilizers are a class of chemical compounds used for the treatment of stress, and mild or even severe mental diseases. These relieve anxiety, stress, irritability or excitement by inducing a sense of well-being. Chlordiazepoxide, meprobamate and equanil are examples of tranquilizers.

Derivatives of barbituric acid viz., veronal, amytal, nembutal, luminal and seconal constitute an important class of tranquilizers. These derivatives are called barbiturates. Barbiturates are hypnotic, i.e., sleep producing agents and are important class of tranquilizers.

The drug arsphenamine, known as salvarsan has -As=As- linkage.

Generally potassium soaps are soft to the skin than sodium soaps. These can be prepared by using potassium hydroxide solution in place of sodium hydroxide. So it is presence of potassium which makes the soap soft on skin.

Sucralose is a non-nutritive artificial sweetner. It is trichloro derivative of sucrose. Its appearance and taste are like sugar. It is stable at cooking temperature.

Noradrenaline is one of the neuro transmitters that plays a role in mood changes. If the level of noradrenaline is low for some reason, then the signal-sending activity becomes low, and the person suffers from depression. In such situations, antidepressant drugs are required. These drugs inhibit the enzymes which catalyse the degradation of noradrenaline. If the enzyme is inhibited, this important neurotransmitter is slowly metabolised and can activate its receptor for longer periods of time, thus counteracting the effect of depression.

Use of aspartame is limited to cold foods and soft drinks because it is unstable at cooking temperature.

Some drugs do not bind to the enzyme’s active site. These bind to a different site of enzyme which is called allosteric site. This binding of inhibitor at allosteric site changes the shape of the active site in such a way that substrate cannot recognise it. So allosteric site is site on enzyme apart from active site where inhibitors attach.

Narcotic analgesics like morphine and many of its homologues, when administered in medicinal doses, relieve pain and produce sleep.

Sodium benzoate is a chemical preservative used in limited quantities to preserve food as it is metabolised in the body. Food preservatives prevent spoilage of food due to microbial growth.