Chemical Solubility
Solubility is important to the production of effective dit da jow, or for that matter, many other products on the market. Understanding details in relation to solubility is one of the first steps of analysis; knowing what compounds from what herbs will dissolve into solutions with the solvent (in this case, primarily water and ethyl alcohol) can help create an initial scientific basis for what kind of properties to expect from a dit da jow recipe. If a compound is not soluble with the base solvent, then it will quickly separate into 2 layes, like water and oil, or worse, the compound may not even become extraced from the herb.
You might be saying, "Wait a second! None of my teachers, or teachers teachers ever concerned themselves with solubility and their dit da jow recipes work wonders!" Absolutely! There was no need to understand solubility for herbalists to realize that adding a given herb to rice wine and rubbing it on the skin produced a specific effect. Our goal here is not to discount any of this as there are many hundreds of wonderful recipes out there that do an excellent job by simply adding herbs to alcohol and allowing time to age.
Our goal here is to discuss the science behind dit da jow, and to hopfully come up with some ways that we can make the best of our efforts; perhaps there exists a "best" ratio of water to alcohol for each recipe based on the choice of herbs; perhaps you wish to not spend copious amounts of money on an expensive herb knowing that its compounds are not as soluble as other inexpensive substitutions. Each situation is different, and hopefully in the end there will be enough information here that you can make informed decisions about dit da jow.
Solubility Rules
These are basic inorganic rules that are covered in a survey of Chemistry--we will cover organic solubility later, as it is more pertinent. Straightforward and simple, these are rules that we may find ourselves referencing to see if they apply to any of the compounds that appear here.
1. Group I elements (Li+, Na+, K+, Cs+, Rb+) are soluble. Ammonium Ion NH4+ compounds are also soluble.
2. Salts containing Nitrate Ion NO3- are generally soluble.
3. Chloride (Cl-), Bromide (BR-), and iodides (I-) are generally soluble. Exceptions to this rule include halide salts such as Silver (Ag+), Lead (Pb2+), and Lead (Hg2)2+. PbCl2 is slightly soluble.
4. Nitrates (NO3-), Acetates (CH3CO2-), Chlorates (ClO3-), and Perchlorates (CLO4-) are generally soluble.
5. Sulfates (SO4 2-) are generally soluble, except those of Calcium (Ca2+), Strontium (Sr2+), Barium (Ba2+), Lead (PB2+), Mercury (HG2 2+), and Silver (Ag). Ca(OH)2, Sr(OH)2, and Mg(OH)2 are only very slightly soluble, and Ag2SO4 is slightly soluble.
6. Carbonates (CO2 3-), Chromates (CrO4 2-), Oxalates (C2O4 2-), and Phosphates (PO4 3-) are generally NOT soluble, except those of the Group 1 elements and NH4+.
7. Sulfides (S2-) are generally NOT soluble, except those fo the Group 1 elements and NH4+.
8. Hydroxides (OH-) and Oxides (O2-) are generally NOT soluble, except those of the Group 1 and 2 elements.
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