Saponification is a process of cleaving esters into carboxylate salts and alcohols by the action of aqueous alkali. Typically aqueous sodium hydroxide solutions are used. It is an important type of alkaline hydrolysis. When the carboxylate is a long chain, its salt is called a soap. The saponification of ethyl acetate gives sodium acetate and ethanol:
Soda blasting is a mild form of abrasive blasting in which sodium bicarbonate particles are blasted against a surface using compressed air. It has a much milder abrasive effect than sandblasting. An early use was in the conservation-restoration of the Statue of Liberty in the 1980s.
Soda blasting is a non-destructive method for many applications in cleaning, paint and varnish stripping, automotive restoration, industrial equipment maintenance, rust removal, graffiti removal, molecular steel passivation against rust, oil removal by saponification and translocation, masonry cleaning and restoration, soot remediation, boat hull cleaning and for food processing facilities and equipment and tooth cleaning at the dental laboratory.
Organic reactions are chemical reactions involving organic compounds. The basic organic chemistry reaction types are addition reactions, elimination reactions, substitution reactions, pericyclic reactions, rearrangement reactions, photochemical reactions and redox reactions. In organic synthesis, organic reactions are used in the construction of new organic molecules. The production of many man-made chemicals such as drugs, plastics, food additives, fabrics depend on organic reactions.
The oldest organic reactions are combustion of organic fuels and saponification of fats to make soap. Modern organic chemistry starts with the Wöhler synthesis in 1828. In the history of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards have been given for the invention of specific organic reactions such as the Grignard reaction in 1912, the Diels–Alder reaction in 1950, the Wittig reaction in 1979 and olefin metathesis in 2005.
Cutan is one of two waxy biopolymers which occur in the cuticle of some plants. The other and better-known polymer is cutin. Cutan is believed to be a hydrocarbon polymer, whereas cutin is a polyester, but the structure and synthesis of cutan are not yet fully understood. Cutan is not present in as many plants as once thought; for instance it is absent in Ginkgo.
Cutan was first detected as a non-saponifiable component, resistant to de-esterification by alkaline hydrolysis, that increases in amount in cuticles of some species such as Clivia miniata as they reach maturity, apparently replacing the cutin secreted in the early stages of cuticle development. Evidence that cutan is a hydrocarbon polymer comes from the fact that its flash pyrolysis products are a characteristic homologous series of paired alkanes and alkenes, and through C-NMR analysis of present-day and fossil plants.