The internet is suggestions that Aspirin can be used to and get . These sites don鈥檛 offer any mechanism of this bleaching of course, so I had to try it myself.
Rather than risk my real clothes to this science experiment, I created some stains (tomato and espresso) on pieces of fabric taken from washcloths.
Every site had slightly different instructions, so I chose what seemed like the least nonsense filled options:听听补苍诲听. They both听instructed me to soak my fabric in hot water in which I鈥檇 dissolved five 325 mg tablets of Aspirin, and leave it to soak. Since I foolishly bought 500 mg听Aspirin (it was on sale!) I used 3.25 of my tablets. I ground them up, dissolved them in hot water, and added the fabric.
I also tested a more direct application to give the Aspirin the best chance of working. I ground up another 3.25 tablets, added a bit of water to make a paste, applied that directly to the stains, and let them sit.
While the experiments were brewing, I washed my control stains with 陆 cup of bleach (as per the instructions on the bottle) in the washer (on warm and 鈥渆xtra clean鈥� settings).
Once a few hours had passed on the soaking and sitting stains, I washed them in the same way, without bleach, then hung them all on the line to dry. A few hours later I realized it had actually started raining, so I brought them inside and dried them in the dryer.
The waiting in this process gave me some time to do some math.
Brand name Aspirin , making a single treatment of this method cost only 30 cents.
Pricing other stain removers is a bit more difficult. A rough estimate of the volume of one 鈥榮pray鈥� from a spray bottle is 0.1 ml. If you used about 5 sprays to cover a stain the price per spot treatment would be about 0.0023 cents. So to make the Aspirin soak worth it, you鈥檇 need to be treating more than 13043 stains per load. Perhaps more directly comparable, powder that is added to the laundry costs about 0.17 cents per load.
But, this is a good time to remember that even if the Aspirin is 13000 times more expensive than Shout, we鈥檙e talking about pennies here. They鈥檙e all dirt cheap. Cost is not the issue with this method. The fact that it didn鈥檛 work is.
Neither the soak nor paste method worked as well as good, old-fashioned, bleach.
So why not?
Aspirin is the common name for . It鈥檚 a , meaning that the form it鈥檚 in while in pills is not the active form of the compound. ASA is in the stomach, and is then converted to (SA) (also known as salicylate) in the liver. It鈥檚 salicylic acid that disperses through our bodies and causes the pain, inflammation and fever reductions we expect.
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SA mainly binds and deactivates cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes. These enzymes usually produce prostaglandins, pro-inflammatory hormones that help neurons detect pain, and thromboxanes, lipids that promote blood clotting. With fewer prostaglandins and thromboxanes, we feel less pain and blood clots are avoided. That鈥檚 why daily low dose aspirin is useful for avoiding heart attacks- it helps prevent the formation of blood clots that could block arteries.
to form salicylic acid and acetic acid (vinegar). So it could be the acetylsalicylic acid, salicylic acid, acetic acid, or some other Aspirin ingredient that works as a bleaching agent. Bleaches can work either by the molecule that gives something colour (giving it electrons), or by oxidizing it (taking electrons from it).
Luckily, scientists have a measure of how well an agent can reduce or oxidize its subject- . The more negative a substance鈥檚 reduction potential, the better a reducing agent it is. For example, common bleach () works by oxidizing stain molecules and has a reduction potential of , making it a pretty good oxidizing agent.
Salicylic acid and acetylsalicylic acid both have reduction potentials of . Acetic acid breaks down into acetate ions in water and has a reduction potential of . Those numbers just aren鈥檛 great. The evidence for bleaching properties just isn鈥檛 there.
And don鈥檛 forget the evidence of tomatoes and coffee that remains on my fabric.
You鈥檙e forgiven for believing in the aspirin bleaching method if you, like me, have used a lot of anti-acne products. Many of , , or both, as their active ingredient. If you鈥檝e ever applied a night cream and woken up to a bleached pillowcase, you know that some acne products cause bleaching of fabrics and hair. That鈥檚 because, unlike SA, does have a strong bleaching effect, like most other peroxides. The two reagents are used so interchangeably and commonly in skin care products that it鈥檚 fairly easy to get them mixed up. Rest assured, a SA only cream won鈥檛 wreck your favourite bathrobe.
It also won鈥檛 get the lipstick stain out of it.
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