Phenol

Phenol

 

Phenol is a molecule that has improved and maintained sanitary conditions in hospitals to prevent microbes and infection-causing bacteria to travel amongst the surgeons and the patients. Phenol is an alcohol that is based on the benzene ring; a majority of this chapter discusses the applications of carbolic acid to maintain sanitary conditions in hospitals and naturally occurring phenols and polyphenols such as THC, vanillin, eugenol, isoeugenol, and zingerone. Certain phenols that are synthesized such as trichlorophenol have antibacterial properties are use used in sterile surgery. Trinitrophenol has been used as a dye to provide various colors for silk-based products and as an explosive compound during the war. There are a variety of phenols with different properties, form spices to dyes to antiseptics. Vanillin is present in the vanilla plantifolia plant and is isolated for its flavor enhancing properties. Another phenol, THC, which is the psychoactive and mildly intoxicating component of Cannabis sativa, is present in the Indian hemp plant and processes these types of properties. THC could be used medically to treat a variety of symptoms, such as cancer, AIDS, loss of appetite, depression, and anxiety. A polyphenol, gossypol, is a toxic compound that has six phenol molecules in its molecular structure and could be used as a chemical birth control in males due to its suppression of sperm production. During the late 1800s, the hospital disease has been present, which refers to the spread of bacteria amongst the doctors and the patients, which has been responsible for the casualties and suffering of many people from infections and a lack of sterility. Lister, a surgeon at the Royal infirmity in Glasgow and a professor of surgery at the university of Glasgow,  recognized and deduced the presence of microorganisms or germs in the air in the hospital that were not detected visually, which encouraged him to think of an efficient, safe, and appropriate method of eliminating germs and preventing infections in the hospital. After Lister applied carbolic acid on a boy’s broken bone, the wound has healed rapidly and he has not suffered from any infections; the effectiveness of the solution has been recognized and was applied in many surgical operations by August 1867 as an antiseptic. Crude carbolic acid has been synthesized by heating coal and mixing the coal gas with the carbolic solution. The main component of the solution, phenol, is responsible for many properties of the solution. The benzene ring, with its alternating double and single bonds, serves as a barrier for microorganisms and prevents the presence of bacteria in the area it is sprayed or applied to; the fact that phenol is an alcohol also proves that it is an antiseptic agent because certain alcohols such as isopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol could serve as antiseptics. Lister developed a machine that would spray the carbolic acid solution into the surroundings in the room to maintain sanitary, antiseptic, and antimicrobial conditions effectively, yet phenol is toxic and is an irritant to the skin and on certain vital processed in the body, leading to illness. Phenol is not used as an antiseptic today because newly developed and synthesized antiseptics are more convenient than phenol and do not pose the toxicity phenol displays. The polymer or repeating phenol units, lignin, is a molecule that is located in and in between the cell walls of plants. Lignin provides a rigid structure for the plant is contains a portion of the molecule similar to the vanillin molecule. The demand for vanilla has exceeded the supply of vanilla from the vanilla orchid significantly, which requires synthetic vanillin to be derived and manufactured on a larger, industrial scale to generate profit and to establish a balance between the supply and demand of the particular product. Under the correct conditions, the vanillin molecule is isolated from the lignin molecule and is used as a flavor enhancer that is chemically identical to its natural counterpart, the vanilla bean. The phenol molecule has permitted antiseptic surgery and has prevented thousands of patients injured at war or suffering from another injury to get infected; the use of phenol also increased the range of operations available because it was safe to perform various types of surgeries with this antiseptic agent; organ transplants and  open-heart surgeries have been facilitated. The author’s argument makes sense because the applications and the impacts of phenol on society and sterile surgery have been expounded on and accurately portrayed; certain phenols, such as vanillin, has been isolated from the lignin molecule to produce synthetic vanilla and man naturally occurring phenols process a variety of properties and each one could be used in different cases and for different applications. Certain synthesized compounds or derivatives of phenol have been used by many people to perform certain tasks and many improvements have been facilitated, such as sterile surgery. Another compound based on the phenol molecule, Bakelite, has been produced by Leo Baekeland in a chemical reaction between phenol and formaldehyde; the resultant compound could be used as an electric insulator. Baekeland has been concerned about synthesizing an alternative and a similar molecule to Shellac that has been used as a lacquer, a wood preservative, and an electrical insulator. Shellac has been distorted by heat and has changed shape because it is a thermoplastic, while Bakelite has been a thermoset plastic and locked in a particular shape after being molded. The usage of various plastics or synthetic polymers has skyrocketed during the twentieth century to facilitate various industrial and social processes using new materials. Bakelite has been superior to Shellac because it was more heat-resistant and did not change shape, discolor, or melt during its applications. Whenever the demand for a certain product or material exceeds the supply significantly, to support the market and the industry, a synthetic and chemically identical molecule is to be derived to perform the same task as its natural counterpart and to have at least one advantage over the naturally occurring molecule it resembles. Therefore, the phenol molecule and various derivatives of phenol such as Bakelite, synthetic vanillin, and carbolic acid have been applied and manufactured on a large scale production to meet the demands of a large amount of people and social institutions and to improve conditions in various settings so that tasks could be performed more effectively, such as surgery, electric insulation, and wood preservation. Keep in mind that whenever you’re consuming a product with the vanilla flavor, arduous effort, empirical observations, experimentation, synthesis, and derivation of synthetic vanillin had to occur to insure that you actually have the opportunity to obtain this product in a society that has a very high demand for vanilla.