The
importance of magnesium and iron.
Nota bene: this text has been translated from Spanish
to English mainly by Google Translator, so, please excuse any spelling or grammar
errors.
These metals are very important chemical elements.
Magnesium forms part of a molecule called chlorophyll
(a green pigment).
Iron forms part of a molecule called hemoglobin (which
is a protein, a metalloprotein, in fact).
– –
– –
Magnesium is
an alkaline earth metal.
Symbol: Mg (from the Latin word magnesium).
Atomic number: 12.
It has 12 protons and usually 12 neutrons in its
nucleus, but there are isotopes that have 13 or 14 neutrons; and it has 12
electrons orbiting the nucleus: two in its first energy level or K shell, eight
in its second energy level or L shell, and two in its third energy level or M
shell.
Relative atomic weight: 24.305.
It is located in group 2: in the second column (below
the chemical element called Beryllium, Be), and in the third row or line (to
the right side of sodium, Na) in the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements of
Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 -1907).
It is not
found free in nature, but forming compounds such as magnesium chloride, MgCl2.
It is
the sixth, seventh or eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust (there
are discrepancies), representing about 2 percent of the Earth's crust, and it is
the third most abundant chemical element dissolved in seawater.
It is usually
obtained from magnesium chloride, MgCl2, which is found dissolved in
the seawater.
Magnesium ion is essential for all
living cells.
In
industry, magnesium is used as an alloying element.
Magnesium
hydroxide, Mg(OH)2, or milk of magnesia is used in medicine, for
example, as an antacid.
There
are ordinary people who use it as well, without evidence of its effectiveness:
1. To
mitigate the burns caused by the sun after being at the beach, the desert, very
hot areas, et cetera
2. As a deodorant,
especially on sensitive skin.
3. To
soothe burnings caused by irritation of the skin (burns, allergies...).
5.
Diluted in water, milk of magnesia is often used in the oily areas of the skin
of young and adult people (some women apply it before moisturizer; others,
after moisturizer).
Magnesium
chloride, MgCl2, is used in medicine, but also in the manufacture of
paper, textiles, concrete, and as an anti-freezing agent: magnesium chloride is
sprayed on dry pavements of airport runways before the snow falls, or on wet
pavements before the water reaches freezing temperatures in the winter.
Magnesium
citrate is used as a laxative.
Magnesium
sulfate, MgSO4, as such, is used almost exclusively in the industry
as a drying agent, but hydrated: MgSO4 • 7H2O, or Epsom
salt, or English salt, has a broader use in medicine, for example in bath
salts.
It is
used in agriculture and gardening to correct magnesium deficiency in soil.
Magnesium
carbonate, MgCO3, is used in powder form by gymnasts and
weightlifters to enhance their grip at the bars, still rings, pommel horses, et
cetera.
In
high-level escalation is used to improve the grip of the hands to the rock.
Climbers carry it in a bag hanging from their belts.
(In
contrast, violinists, and baseball pitchers use rosin in powder form ––a
resinous substance, Pix graeca,
obtained from turpentine of pines, firs, larches, or terebinths.)
Magnesium
(Mg) forms part of the chlorophyll molecule, a vegetal substance essential to
life, which is in the chloroplasts (organelles of plant cells).
Chlorophyll
is found in cyanobacteriae, algae and in all organisms that have chloroplasts
in their cells, that is, in plants.
The pigment
chlorophyll is essential in photosynthesis, an important biochemical process
that allows plants to absorb energy from light.
The chlorophyll
molecule has two parts: a porphyrin ring (one
tetrapyrrole, in this case), and a long chain known as
phytol.
Vegetal
porphyrin has at its center a magnesium
ion (Mg2+), surrounded by four nitrogen atoms, N, many atoms of
hydrogen, H, and a few atoms of oxygen, O.
In
vertebrates, iron, Fe, occupies a position equivalent to the magnesium in the plants.
Through their
roots, terrestrial plants absorb water and minerals, including magnesium, from
the soil; and mainly through their leaves, plants capture carbon dioxide, CO2
from the Earth's atmosphere, to form carbohydrates (molecules as glucose,
cellulose, id est, compounds of carbon, C, hydrogen, H, and oxygen, O) and
release oxygen, O2, to the atmosphere.
– –
– –
Iron is a
transitional metal.
Symbol: Fe (from the Latin word ferrum).
Atomic number: 26.
It has 26 protons and usually 28 or 30 neutrons in its
nucleus. There are other stable isotopes which have 31 or 32 neutrons; and it has
26 electrons orbiting the nucleus: two in its first energy level or K shell,
eight in its second energy level or L shell, fourteen in its third energy level
or M shell, and two in its fourth energy level or N shell.
Relative atomic weight: 55.85, or 55,847, or 55,845,
or 55.6 (there are variations or discrepancies).
Valences: +2, +3.
It is located in the group 8, at the top of the eighth
column (above ruthenium, Ru), and in the fourth row or line (to the right of
Manganese, Mn) in the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements of Russian
chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907).
Iron,
Fe, is rarely found free in nature. It is the fourth most abundant element in
the earth's crust, and among the metals, only aluminum, Al, is more abundant.
It forms part of many minerals, including a lot of oxides. In order to obtain iron
in an elemental state, the iron oxides are reduced with carbon and then are
refined to remove impurities.
Nuclear
fusion in massive (giant) stars is definitively concluded when in their centers
there is only iron. So, in the early stages of a star's life (either very
massive, massive, medium, or "small"), hydrogen (“stuff”) is going
fusing to form helium: four nuclei of hydrogen, H, form a nucleus of helium,
He.
Then
when all the hydrogen in the center of the star has been transformed into
helium, other nuclear reactions can occur. If the temperature in the center of
the star reaches 200 million degrees, helium nuclei fuse together and generate
carbon and oxygen, if the temperature further increases, it can occur formation
of neon, Ne, sodium, Na, and magnesium, Mg.
If the
core temperature reaches about 3,000 million degrees, it can occur formation of
all atomic nuclei which are not heavier than the iron. The not very massive stars can not
produce iron, as the temperature of their respective centers never becomes as
high as the center of very massive stars.
The
Earth's core consists mainly of iron, Fe, and nickel, Ni.
Iron is the most widely used hard metal, it constitutes
about 95 percent of world production of metal.
In
industry, iron is used for making steel, when combined with carbon, C (obtained
from coke, coal), in a proportion equal to or less than 2 percent of carbon if
the iron-carbon alloy has more carbon generally it is not called steel but
casting (with carbon in an amount from 2.1 or 2.14 to 6.67 percent).
The
steel is used in vehicles, boats, beams, girders, joists, columns, to build
houses and buildings structures, railroad tracks.
Also
produce large amounts of cast iron and wrought iron, barriers, gates, fences, garden
furniture...
Iron is
used to make magnets, inks, paper blueprints, pigments polishers, abrasives.
Iron is an
essential part of blood cells called erythrocytes or red blood cells, as it is
an indispensable element of the complex protein molecule called hemoglobin,
which is responsible for transporting oxygen (O2) to all body
tissues of humans and vertebrate animals, and some invertebrates.
Iron
exists only in small amounts in living beings, however, its role is vital in
the growth and survival, and it is essential not only to obtain adequate tissue
oxygenation, but also for the metabolism of most of the cells.
Hemoglobin
is a conjugate protein or heteroprotein, comprised of four polypeptide chains
(globin), each of which binds a heme group.
A heme group consists of:
(A) A
succinyl-CoA* binding at amino acid glycine to form a pyrrole.
*A combination of
succinic acid and coenzyme A.
(B) Four
pyrrole groups together to integrate protoporphyrin IX.
(C) Protoporphyrin
IX binds a ferrous ion (Fe 2+) to form a heme group.
A heme group
has at its center a ferrous ion (Fe2+),
surrounded by four nitrogen atoms, N, some CH radicals (carbon and
hydrogen), two OH radicals (hydrogen and oxygen) and two oxygen atoms.
In
plants, magnesium occupies a position equivalent to iron in vertebrates.
When
hemoglobin carries oxygen, is called oxyhemoglobin or oxygenated hemoglobin,
which travels “on board” of erythrocytes (red blood cells) of the arterial
blood.
When
hemoglobin carries carbon dioxide (CO2), is called
carbaminohemoglobin or carbohemoglobin, which travels “on board” of venous
blood erythrocytes after gas exchange between these erythrocytes and tissues.
Under
different conditions, illnesses or diseases, congenital diseases, poisoning,
stages of life (the fetal stage, for example), in humans there may be up to
nine types of hemoglobin, but the most common or “natural ones most of the time”,
are the two mentioned above.
Erythrocytes
or red blood cells are specialized cells. The red blood cells of mammals are
anucleate when mature, meaning that they lack a cell nucleus. In contrast, the
erythrocytes of other vertebrates have nuclei, the only known exceptions are
salamanders of the Batrachoseps genus
and fishes of the Maurolicus genus.
Anemia
is defined as a low hemoglobin concentration in the blood. It is not a disease
but a symptom; one of its most common causes is iron deficiency.
Its
origin may be an insufficient intake of iron, or bleeding.
Doctors
often prescribe oral or injected iron to anemic individuals.
Also doctors
can prescribe iron, in appropriate doses and through appropriate channels, to pregnant
women (in addition to calcium, folic acid, et cetera).
– –
– –
In “slaughterhouses” of some Mexican and Spanish
bullrings, certain people (women and men alike) drink bull’s blood after a
bullfight or corrida; previously they
often pick up the blood in disposable glasses after an employee has cut one or
more blood vessels of the hung bull, which has been killed previously by the bullfighter
or matador.
Also, in Mexico
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario