Citric Acid - Uses?

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:It bothers me that it was grandfathered in without a study. I couldn't hurt to go back and review how it came to be used in so many products, especially that we have so many more allergies and respiratory / inflammation problems in the gut than we used to.
I guess it would be interesting to figure out how much of this Aspergilla Niger is left in the Manufactured Citric Acid.

That study Pete linked to is interesting and concerning reading! As well as the bulk citric acid for cleaning, I've used food-grade citric acid instead of lemon juice when canning. I will need to look carefully at how it's sourced and how pure it is.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:It bothers me that it was grandfathered in without a study. I couldn't hurt to go back and review how it came to be used in so many products, especially that we have so many more allergies and respiratory / inflammation problems in the gut than we used to.
I guess it would be interesting to figure out how much of this Aspergilla Niger is left in the Manufactured Citric Acid.

Excellent point!

I am allergic to penicillin and it happens that I am a walking black mold detector: sinuses start to swell up right away

I didn't know about the connection but now I will be checking labels for that!

The last time I use citric acid powder was for pickling hides. It requires an acidic solution of pH3 to kill all germs and soften the tissues. Vinegar cannot get that low because it's a weaker acid and also so diluted.

I would love to know if absorbic acid can be used instead but haven't seen online instructions

Tereza Okava wrote:if I understand correctly, the well-loved and rather highly touted product known as Barkeepers Friend is just citric acid. I keep some around for cleaning.

Although it is not the primary ingredient, Barkeeper's friend does contain citric acid. the main ingredient appears to be Oxalic acid, which is found in abundance in rhubarb.
Bar Keepers Friend contains oxalic acid, feldspar, and surfactants. It may also contain glass oxide abrasive, sodium polyacrylate, and citric acid.
Ingredients
Oxalic acid: The primary active ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend, which removes rust, tarnish, and lime stains
Feldspar: A mild abrasive
Glass oxide abrasive: An abrasive ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend
Linear sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (DDBSA): A surfactant ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend
Sodium polyacrylate: An ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend
Citric acid: An ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend
Safety
Bar Keepers Friend can irritate the skin and eyes
It can cause peeling and contact dermatitis if used for long periods or if it comes into contact with the skin for a long time
It should not be ingested
History
Bar Keepers Friend was invented in 1882 by chemist George William Hoffman
It was originally sold to bars to polish brass rails and other finishes .

I have been using club soda for my countertops, and it works  pretty well. For the toilet, any Coca Cola product will do, just not the real sweet stuff.
Borax, with hot water and Castile soap works quite well too after you lower the level of the water in the bowl.

Reading May's post on getting down to very low PH got me thinking...

Last summer I accidentally overdosed some Sunshine Blue dwarf blueberries growing hydroponically (Kratky style hydro) with acid.

That took the PH of the water down to 2, the acid used was sulfuric intended for lead acid battery usage (36%).

I was sure I had killed them, but, no, they started looking way better than ever.

Makes me wonder if the big bag of citric acid I have to clean out my steam water distiller might have some use to acidify soil economically for those plants that are fond of low PH.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:It bothers me that it was grandfathered in without a study. I couldn't hurt to go back and review how it came to be used in so many products, especially that we have so many more allergies and respiratory / inflammation problems in the gut than we used to.
I guess it would be interesting to figure out how much of this Aspergilla Niger is left in the Manufactured Citric Acid.

Although many products that come from microbial fermentation are not crystallized during final purification, citric acid is one for which crystals are produced for that purpose.   And that is a good thing since most crystals, from salt to table sugar, require a high level of purity for crystals to even form.  I have no number or criteria for what can be defined as "high level of purity", but the process of crystalization does remove a lot of impurities from the final product.  Although Aspergillus niger in its wild form may produce toxins that could have a detrimental effect on human health, most operations would use a strain or culture of the fungus that was deficient in toxin production for food safety reasons.

I have to chuckle to myself at how I've been missing out!...... I've only used it for perking up food.  With our terrible hard water, I have a toilet just begging for a "citric acid spa day".  LOL...

Pete Podurgiel wrote:
Reference:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6097542/

Two authors without non-personal email addresses associated. Their evidence is 4 people and their case studies. They did not use double blind randomized comtrolled trials. They did not present on purification methods used by industry, since the introduction of A. Niger produced citric acid in 1919, over a hundred years ago. I haven't looked, but my guess is this also wasn't peer reviewed. The whole "unnatural" claim seems bogus and misdirectional, it's about the same as saying yogurt is unnatural or yeast leavened bread is unnatural.

Nathan McCormick wrote:

Pete Podurgiel wrote:
Reference:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6097542/

Two authors without non-personal email addresses associated. Their evidence is 4 people and their case studies. They did not use double blind randomized comtrolled trials. They did not present on purification methods used by industry, since the introduction of A. Niger produced citric acid in 1919, over a hundred years ago. I haven't looked, but my guess is this also wasn't peer reviewed. The whole "unnatural" claim seems bogus and misdirectional, it's about the same as saying yogurt is unnatural or yeast leavened bread is unnatural.

Make of it what you will, but you can add one other person to that list ...the woman that brought this to my attention who was severely allergic to MCA (Manufactured Citric Acid). After hearing for decades how harmful black mold is to our health, I was shocked to learn they use it to produce MCA. I for one, am steering clear of the manufactured stuff.

I think what bothers me the most is it seems just a bit disingenuous calling MCA "citric acid".  Given the name, I feel most people are inclined to believe it is derived from citrus. 'Truth in advertising' and all, it's kinda like calling Rapeseed Oil "Canola Oil" ....I'm guessing "black mold acid" doesn't quite have the same appeal and would a bit too truthy, perhaps?

In any case, knowing what I now know about MCA,  I would like to make my own magnesium citrate   ...any suggestions on where I might find true, food-grade citric acid?   Or can I just use lemon juice and add it to some magnesium carbonate?

Pete Podurgiel wrote:
In any case, knowing what I now know about MCA,  I would like to make my own magnesium citrate   ...any suggestions on where I might find true, food-grade citric acid?   Or can I just use lemon juice and add it to some magnesium carbonate?

It looks possibly like mixing citric acid with magnesium oxide might give you what you need.  Also, it takes a bit of digging through the search "naturally-sourced citric acid", but it appears some supplies get it from citrus fruit instead of from fermentation.   Magnesium oxide is avaliable from many suppliers it appears.  It looks like it's a direct exchange reaction with citric acid giving up 2 hydrogen atoms and the magnesium oxide giving up its oxygen to yield H2O and magnesium citrate.  But sleuth down a more technical description to be sure.

Thanks for the reply, John!

That's interesting to know about the magnesium oxide.
Sounds like I'll have to roll-up my sleeves and dust off my chemistry text books  :-)  ...cheers!

Nathan McCormick wrote:

I use it for science experiments with kids.

Have any experiments to share?

We have the Citric Acid ready to go

I use it to clean shower heads by soaking it in citric acid with water. I also use it to cleans my body sometimes, by drinking 1/8-1/2 tsp in warm water, daily.

I made a bottle of chelated iron foliar spray out of rusty nails and citric acid for diagnosing Fe deficiency.

Just mix rusty nail water (Ferric Oxide) with citric acid solution, the reddish brown particles will clear up and turn yellow to form Fe-citrate complex. To make a 0.1% Fe spray, I use 2g citric acid in 500ml water saturated with Fe2O3.

I don't have plants that need the treatment now, otherwise, the pale leaves will turn green in 3 days after spraying if the chlorosis is due to lack of iron.

If left in a sealed bottle longer, the above yellow solution turns lighter in color. It is able to stain fabric pre-dyed with tannin dark, same as with ferrous sulfate. I suspect Fe is in a reduced stage and be more effective as fertilizer.

Citric acid is excellent for derusting steel. Phosphoric acid leaves a black finish of iron phosphate I believe. Citric acid leaves a more bare metal finish. Both very useful. Electrolysis would be the more chemical free way to accomplish the derusting.
Use citric acid in the oilfield to treat the very high pH cement contamination of drilling mud. More effective than sodium bicarbonate.

I've used it for pretty much what everyone else already mentioned.  It's great for descaling my electric kettle and for cleaning the inside of stainless steel cookware to remove the rainbow look they can get, along with any other imperfections.  

Of course, if you're out of citric acid for descaling, cut a lemon in half, squeeze the juice into whatever you want to descale, and then throw in the lemon peel.  Bring water and lemon to a boil, let it sit (off the heat) for one hour and rinse.  Since I have a garbage disposal, I'll cut the lemon peel up into small pieces.  After the hour is up, I'll bring it to the boil again and dump it into my garbage disposal while it's running to clean and freshen it.  

Citric acid is one of those things I always try to have handy.  Just like Borax, etc.,

This video highlights some uses of citric acid for cleaning.

Citric acid in soap, lotions, and shampoo is the only thing that I find it viable to use in. A little goes a long way in my laundry, especially since hard water is a problem here.