Those chemicals do not chemically react with things in such a
> nice chela manner as above with the rust.

so is chelation therapy any good?

--
billb
I don't care who you are fat man, get those reindeer off my roof.
Life is a series of small disasters leading up to that one big diaster.
Deport illegals to China, that's where the jobs are anyway.
Yes, I know what you mean, but I've already spoken to Ferrari. You'll still
win at roulette.
Ted Nugent called, he want's his shirt back.
"Droopy" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> I was not saying "no" to you sam, but to Tom.
>
> Reduction is the opposite of oxidation.
>
> Being an anti-oxidant is often the thing as being a reducing agent.
> Oxidation is when an atom loses electrons (and its oxidation number
> increases. So if you take iron and let it rust it goes like this 2 Fe
> + O2 -> 2 FeO the iron lost two of its electrons and has oxidized to
> the Fe2+ state. Now if you heat that rust with hydrogen gas H2 you can
> REDUCE the oxidation number of the iron back to 0 and you get the iron
> metal back and water FeO + H2 -> Fe + H2O. That is reduction.
>
> Ok, now the difference between being an anti-oxidant and being a
> reducing agent. An anti-oxidant is a special class of reducing agents
> that can accept electrons from free radicals and reactive oxygen
> species. Instead they tent to give
> things extra electrons that they do not need and damage them. But they
> do not exactally chemically combine with those things. So
> anti-oxidants are reducing agents, but reducing agents may not be
> anti-oxidants.
>
> The reason I use reduction instead of anti-oxidant is becasue that
> oxidation in wine is not always due to free radicals or reactive oxygen
> species. Instead it is more like the "rust" example. That is oxygen
> (and other stuff) is chemically reacting with wine components and
> changing their character. The wine is "rusting"
>
> I dunno, it is a subtle difference. To a chemist like me it is a big
> difference.....but to all of you it is probabally a forgettable one.
>