Does any body know about EDTA? It is a substance which is rumored to be "similar" to LSD.?

Question

EDTA was in 7up(before they changed their ingredients) I found it in cans of beans, as well as in different fertilizers and soaps.

Thru all of these substances one could be exposed to such(EDTA)

I was just wondering if anyone knew anything about such a substance or even other "tripping chemical substances" which could have been "laced" into the food supply, for whatever reason.

Serious answers please. Thanks

Answer 1

You mention 7Up, when my son was small it was one of the very few soft drinks we gave him as it did not have any in.
If we wanted him to stay awake a few hours longer when we were out travelling, we'd give him a banana or can of coke.
Later on we found he was hyperactive and made use of this fact to get him to bed early or keep him awake a little longer.
This stuff definitely did not agree with him then.

Answer 2

EDTA = ethylenediamminetetraacetic acid

A lot of enzymes involved in oxidation, proteolysis, etc. require divalent metal ion cofactors like Mg2+ (or often the metal ions can catalyze reactions themselves without need of a separate enzyme). EDTA has an extremely high affinity for binding metal ions like these, thus preventing many of the chemical processes that would otherwise spoil foods, blood, etc. That is how it acts as a preservative.

I have never heard of anyone getting high on EDTA and I can't imagine how it would work chemically to do this. In general, recreational drugs work by binding to neurological receptors and/or disrupting nerve transmission in some way. EDTA could disrupt nerve transmission by chelating Ca2+ ions, but you would need insanely high concentrations to have a reasonable effect--you'd probably die before that.

I'm highly skeptical that anyone actually *has* tripped out on EDTA. If they did, it was probably because there was something wrong with them and not because of the EDTA.

Answer 3

EDTA = ethylediamine tetraacetic acid
Chemical Abstracts Services # 60-00-4
Molecular weight: 292.24 grams/mole
decomposes at 220°C
soulbility in water: 0.5 grams/liter at 25°C

It is a common chelating agent. The free acid form is less stable than the salt forms.

EDTA is used as an antioxidant in foods. It is also used to treat lead and other heavy-metal poisonings in humans and animals.

EDTA is safe, non-toxic, and non-hallucinogenic. Any stories about it being a hallucinogen are urban legends.

Answer 4

EDTA is added to blood to prevent it from clotting.

EDTA is also used as a divalent cation chelator. Alot of protease's require divalent cations within the active site in order to be active. The addition of EDTA inhibits the activities of these proteases so it helps preserve the food.

I work very closely with EDTA and it does not act like LSD in anyway.

Answer 5

it's a preservative and nothng like LSD. EDTA chelates metals like Ca and Na and that's it. LSD is a halucinogen that goes after seratonin. EDTA won't get past the blood-brain barrier

Answer 6

EDTA is an anti-oxidant used to keep food and bevarages fresh. I doubt that it has any hallucinegenic properties.

The attatched link on wikipedia give a diagram of the chemical structure and a nice description of its uses

http://www.gastechnology.org/webroot/app/xn/xd.aspx?it=enweb&xd=1researchcap\1_2energysyst\1_2_4_majorprojects\advancediontransportmembranes.xml

Answer 7

All I know about ETDA is that it's used as an additive in blood collection tubes; it preserves the blood for testing.

Answer 8

It's just a preservative. Lots of chemicals are "similar" to one another, Example: Margarine is almost identical to plastic. It really is but.....do you eat plastic?