International holidays - Alcohol Discovery Day

Ethyl alcohol, or rather the intoxicating drink that contained this component, has been known to mankind since ancient times According to some reports, people learned about the unusual effect of fermented foods 8,000 years ago The Chinese have been making intoxicating drinks from rice, grapes and honey since ancient times The Persians brewed beer, the Greeks enjoyed wine, and the Irish monks made whiskey Alcohol has become an integral part of human life, but, unfortunately, this does not negate the fact that any type of alcoholic beverages is poison In small doses it is relatively harmless and the intoxicating effect quickly wears off The insidiousness of alcohol is that it can cause addiction in a person In this case, the body is methodically destroyed, the work of various systems and organs is undermined, which leads to sad consequences February 25th marks the Discovery of Spirits Who could have discovered it if people drank alcoholic beverages in ancient times? Now we are talking about studying the chemical properties of alcohols - a group of organic compounds with a complex structure The fermentation process was indeed used in the production of alcoholic beverages for a very long time, but scientists began to study it many centuries later Intoxicating drinks began to be produced even before the invention of pottery In those distant times, special vessels were used to make them - wineskins They were made from animal skin One of the first to study in detail the features of fermentation processes was the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur He established experimentally that any liquid containing carbohydrates can ferment at a temperature of 12-14 degrees As a result of this process, an intoxicating drink is obtained containing alcohol in different proportions The alcohol strength was determined by the raw materials and production technology Grapes were usually used for wines, although rice, cherries or plums could be used Calvados was made from apples, and mead was made from honey and yeast Sugar cane was used for rum, blue agave for tequila, hops and malt for beer, pears for peri, and plums for slivyanka To obtain alcohol in its pure form, it is necessary to carry out distillation or distillation - a process during which the volatile components from the fermented mixture evaporate and then condense when cooled Distillation was discovered at the dawn of our era Aristotle conducted chemical experiments, and he managed to obtain pure alcohol, which he did not fail to mention in one of his many works Descriptions of distillation are also found in the Persian physician Ibn Sina, who was better known in the West under the name Avicenna The technology for producing alcohol began to be studied by alchemists, doctors and pharmacists in different parts of the world In the 14th century, the Frenchman Arnaud de Villger managed to distill alcohol from grape wine He compiled a unique recipe that became widespread The alcohol obtained during distillation was used as a medicine The idea was liked by monks from Italian and French monasteries Using Villger's recipe, they began to produce alcohol, which they immediately dubbed aqua vitae - water of life or living water In the same century, Italian merchants brought the curiosity to Moscow, where they presented it to the prince and his entourage The alcohol was called spiritus vini - the spirit of wine It was from the Latin language that the word migrated to Russian during the reign of Peter the Great Alcohol was used not only as a base for various medicines Although its use causes blood vessels to dilate and cause more bleeding, it was often used as a pain reliever The composition dulls sensations, thereby helping the patient survive pain Alcohol is an effective disinfectant It has also been used as a remedy that can reduce fever or warm up When wiping the human body, alcohol has a cooling effect, since the composition quickly evaporates from the surface of the skin In case of hypothermia, intensive rubbing helps restore blood circulation and warm up Today, the scope of use of alcohols has expanded significantly They are used to make paints and varnishes, solvents, brake fluids, antifreeze, fuels, cleaners, explosives, and household chemicals Alcohols are actively used in the field of medicine, pharmaceuticals, cosmetology, food industry, perfumery, textile production, and agriculture