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2006-07-27 17:48:26 · 17 answers · asked by sk 1 in Science & Mathematics Botany

17 answers

The vapors in the onion react with water to form a week acid. Your eyes don't like acid, so they produce tears to flush out your eyes.

2006-07-27 17:51:12 · answer #1 · answered by Michael M 6 · 0 0

Cooking with onions could be a topic. solid fumes from a decrease onion would reason the cook’s eyes to sting and water. If dissimilar onions are mandatory for a recipe, the stinging would substitute into extreme sufficient to make the cook would desire to circulate away the room as a manner to get better. a number of chemical reactions are in contact in this phenomenon, happening in the two the onion and the cook’s eyes. the main direct rationalization for those tears is a gasoline emitted by using the onion, regular as syn-propanethial-S-oxide, or ethyl sulfine. This gasoline is generated while an onion is peeled, decrease, or crushed, liberating 2 enzymes; allinase and lachrymatory-factor synthase, which convert sulfur molecules interior the onion to sulfenic acids. those acids work together with one yet another and form (spontaneously) ethyl sulfine, that's the ideal set off for the tears. The pungent scent of onions is via different sulfur compounds regular as thiosulfinates, that are additionally products of sulfenic acids interactions, yet whilst the scent may well be maximum great in the time of the reducing that's no longer the source of tears. The production of syn-propanethial-S-oxide is over after approximately 5 minutes (with top gasoline formation happening style of 30 seconds after reducing has started). Syn-propanethial-S-oxide is the two gaseous at room temperature and water soluble. because of fact the gasoline leaves the onion and starts off to combine with the air interior the kitchen, a number of it comes into touch with the cook’s eyes and dissolves interior the watery action picture overlaying them. This produces sulfuric acid, which irritates the nerve-endings discovered interior the cornea. This activates the attention to offer tears to the two dilute this acid and wash it away. efficient recommendations to avert IT: a million. lighting fixtures a candle interior the kitchen close to the place you will slice the onion. After lighting fixtures the candle, decrease or slice the onion. It particularly does artwork! 2. placed it interior the freezer for approximately 10 minutes in the previous reducing. I continuously keep my onions interior the refrigerator and don't have too lots of a topic with tears. 3.you may soak them in chilly water for a pair of hours and then once you decrease them. It won't sting as lots.

2016-12-10 17:02:11 · answer #2 · answered by allateef 4 · 0 0

Onions contain sulphur compounds designed to make them unpalatable to most animals. Unfortunately for the onion, they are destroyed with cooking. But cutting the onion's cells releases the chemical, which then irritates the eyes.

That's why cutting the onion vertically causes fewer tears. A sharp knife cutting along the grain damages fewer onion cells.

2006-07-27 17:52:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Because when you cut the onions you are cutting through the cells, rupturing their contents. They contain enzymes that rapidly oxidize and acidify chemicals. In the case of onions, you are oxidizing the sulfur containing compounds found inside the onion, creating sulfuric acid. This acid then gets in your eyes (its a gas) and your eyes tear up to flush the acid out.

2006-07-27 17:56:56 · answer #4 · answered by michelsa0276 4 · 0 0

Suppy's got the right answer. Its only when you inhale the vapours of the onion that your eyes begin to water. The nasal and optical sinuses are linked and the sharp smell of onions causes your eyes to water. Similarly, when you cry heavily, the nose leaks tears too! To avoid tears while chopping onions, cut them into halves and soak them in water first. My aunt stood by the window in her kitchen usually while cutting onions, with her head slightly turned away from the direction of the breeze. She said the breeze carried away the vapours!

2006-07-29 02:37:59 · answer #5 · answered by someone 3 · 0 0

When peeled or cut, onions release a chemical that reacts with tears on the surface of your eyes. The chemical reaction produces sulfuric acid which irritates your eyes.

2006-07-27 17:53:59 · answer #6 · answered by Diana 6 · 0 0

It has to do with the vapors that an onion releases, which irritate your eyes and cause them to water. To avoid this, you can hold the onion under water while peeling it.

2006-07-28 13:05:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

If only onions can talk...this is what an onion tells you>pls...plsse don't kill me! That's why onions try to defend themselves by spraying acid to your eyes.

2006-07-27 17:54:31 · answer #8 · answered by Dogman 61 3 · 0 0

because of the chemicals in the onion and how they react on our noses and eyes to produce tears which will flood our eyes to wash out the chemical.

2006-07-27 17:54:25 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Volatile secondary metabolites that are released when the onion is cut are responsible.
Some examples of onion secondary metabolites are
S-methyl cysteine sulphoxide, S-allyl cysteine sulphoxide, S-trans-prop-1-enyl cysteine sulphoxide, -propyl cysteine sulphoxide
Please see the link given in source file of this answer. The paper is free and you can download it from internet. Let me know if there is any problem.

2006-07-30 00:20:51 · answer #10 · answered by K Gupta 2 · 0 0

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