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Bitrex – the brand name of the bitterest substance in the world
- IncRnd 4y agoAt first glance, I thought this was about bittrex.com, which I understand is especially bitter for many people.
- gillesjacobs 4y agoBitrex website tells you remarkably little about the substance, Wikipedia to the rescue [1]. > Denatonium, usually available as denatonium benzoate (under trade names such as Denatrol, BITTERANT-b, BITTER+PLUS, Bitrex, Bitrix, and Aversion) and as denatonium saccharide (BITTERANT-s), is the most bitter chemical compound known, with bitterness thresholds of 0.05 ppm for the benzoate and 0.01 ppm for the saccharide. It was discovered in 1958 during research on local anesthetics by MacFarlan Smith of Edinburgh, Scotland, and registered under the trademark Bitrex. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium
- nsajko 4y agoWikipedia article on the substance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium Denatonium, usually available as denatonium benzoate (under trade names such as Denatrol, BITTERANT-b, BITTER+PLUS, Bitrex, Bitrix, and Aversion) and as denatonium saccharide (BITTERANT-s), is the most bitter chemical compound known, with bitterness thresholds of 0.05 ppm for the benzoate and 0.01 ppm for the saccharide. It was discovered in 1958 during research on local anesthetics by MacFarlan Smith of Edinburgh, Scotland, and registered under the trademark Bitrex. Dilutions of as little as 10 ppm are unbearably bitter to most humans. Denatonium salts are usually colorless and odorless solids, but are often traded as solutions. They are used as aversive agents (bitterants) to prevent inappropriate ingestion. Denatonium is used in denatured alcohol, antifreeze, preventive nail biting preparations, respirator mask fit-testing, animal repellents, liquid soaps, shampoos, and Nintendo Switch game cards to prevent accidental swallowing or choking by children. It is not known to pose any long-term health risks. The name "denatonium" reflects the substance's primary use as a denaturant [...]
- extraduder_ire 4y agoI think they quietly stopped putting the bitter coating on switch carts two or so years after it launched, since there was a trend of people putting them in their mouth because they tasted bitter. I haven't verified this myself, but I do remember the massive flood of youtube videos of people tasting them early on.
- M4v3R 4y agoI don’t think they stopped. I bought a relatively new Switch game recently and (for science) checked the card, and it was in fact bitter.
- xtracto 4y agoOh my! I just tried licking my Mario Kart Switch game ... it does taste really bitter, and the taste stayed in my mouth for a couple of minutes. It makes a really interesting prank.
- xemoka 4y agoRandom fact, it's been used in Switch cartridges to stop folks from putting them in their mouth.
- jmoak3 4y agoI’ve tasted the cartridges, can confirm it’s horrible
- squarefoot 4y agoAs a little kid I took the bad habit of biting my nails (I still do) so my parents brought home a specific product in a small bottle with brush containing a fluid that once brushed over my nails should have discouraged me from biting them. It was really bitter, but turned out I actually liked it and kept biting:) That was almost 50 years ago, so I guess the product was a different one.
- cheeze 4y agoAnd now you love Amaro, right!?
- JumpCrisscross 4y agoThis...is disturbingly accurate for my childhood and adult tastes. (Sibilia.)
- anigbrowl 4y agoSame thing happened to me. I didn't have a habit of it; I just used my teeth one time to pull a piece of torn fingernail that was catching on fabric, and my mother happened to see me and freaked out about it. I still remember the taste of the nail paint and wondering who decided that this should be a commercial product. Did your bottle have a picture of a traffic light on it?
- klyrs 4y agoOnce, I was driving and discovered that my thumb had this mesmerizing flavor that I just could not place. After a couple miles, I remembered that I had used my thumb to cover the opening of a windshield wiper fluid bottle. Took a look at the bottle, and discovered the Bitrex brand, and the source of this mystery flavor. Glad to hear I'm not alone!
- extraduder_ire 4y agoIt's barely related, but that reminds me of Dimethyl sulfoxide [0]. Which tastes like garlic, if you get it on your skin. As-in, it'll soak through your skin, and get you your tastebuds pretty quickly via your blood. It's pretty bad, because it'll take any substance you have on your skin with it on its way in. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_sulfoxide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_sulfoxide
- Xamayon 4y agoFrom what I understand, there is significant variance in how bitter it is to different people. As an example, I can lick a switch cartridge and just get a slight tingly sensation, it's not particularly bitter or unpleasant. I have also tasted the denatured alcohol used in some decorative tabletop burners (mainly because, hey, it says 100% non toxic - can't be THAT Bad!). It had a similar tingly taste, and reminded me a bit of gin...
- anigbrowl 4y ago9 volt batteries are where the real action is.
- Waterluvian 4y agoSpicy electrons have a very interesting taste/sensation. I never found it to be painful or unpleasant… just weird. And yet I also never wanted to do it again. Same with getting an accidental zap by 120VAC. Fuzzies. But no thanks.
- leibnitz27 4y agoCan't be the only person who grew to associate anti-fingernail-biting taste with YAY BITING FINGERNAILS.
- smegger001 4y agoyeah my sister got to the point that she likes the taste of anti-fingernail biting liquid after she used it trying to break her anxiety induced habit. evidently the minor relief nail biting provided was enough of a positive reinforcement to begin associating the no-bite stuff with the releif, and now gives her some weird Pavlovian response.
- gaetgu 4y agoHaha this was absolutely me. I thought I was the only one, but after reading several similar comment I guess that it is not an uncommon occurrence. Weird. I wonder what it tastes like to me know. Time to go lick Breath of the Wild…
- Firmwarrior 4y agoI got this or something like it to try and discourage pets from chewing on power cables around the house It didn't work, or you might say it worked too well. It managed to spread to pretty much every surface in the house. Cable touches floor, floor touches toy, toy touches hand, hand touches food, food is incredibly bitter I'd expect to lose an order of magnitude of bitterness at each jump, but somehow it took over and lingered for about a year
- Waterluvian 4y agoI wonder if something can be so bitter that even if it loses orders of magnitude on its journey, it still maxes out your taste buds dynamic range.
- WXLCKNO 4y agoNever though about my taste buds in terms of dynamic range but I will never think of them any other way again. Reducing salt from your diet is like loudness management.
- Waterluvian 4y agoI began using this analogy after my brother spent years not eating anything sweet, and then found that chocolate below 90% cacao was overwhelmingly too sweet. Lower the noise floor on taste and suddenly all kinds of subtle notes emerge.
- WXLCKNO 4y agoThat's even better lol.
- jiggawatts 4y agoSome fad diets like the "potato diet" are based on this principle, that if you reset your tasetbuds then foods with added sugar will taste too sweet, and you'll avoid them. I experienced this with the Keto diet, which is low-carb and hence very low on sweeteners like sugar. It was about a year afterwards that I could eat normal chocolate, candy, or cake.
- AlwaysBCoding 4y agopretty sure i pumped and dumped some coins on bitrex back in the day.
- spoils19 4y agoSounds like they haven't met my friend's wife's lawyer.
- Denatonium 4y agoI always found it interesting that Denatonium, one of the most bitter substances known, is structurally very similar to Lidocaine, a local anesthetic that would numb the taste buds. It's just another example of how a seemingly minor tweak to a structural formula can drastically alter the properties of a substance.
- Synaesthesia 4y agoThey look pretty different to me, but that is an interesting fact. It also seems that humans are a lot more sensitive to it than rats are.
- radicality 4y agoIn the wiki article, the section on synthesis describes how it’s made from lidocaine as starting point. Another name for it is actually “lidocaine benzylbenzoate”. If you take a look again at the diagrams, you’ll notice that it’s almost exactly the same, except one of the N now has a benzene ring attached to it.
- solumunus 4y agoI'm no chemist but the pictures on Wikipedia look nothing alike.
- Doxin 4y agoPretty interesting too that lidocaine is pretty bitter too, though presumably nowhere near as powerful as bitrex.
- at_a_remove 4y agoI just got in a little packet of this. I am planning a surprise for the remaining moles? voles? in my yard. A portion of it is going into this huge jug of castor oil, which has also had a capsaicin product dubbed "The Toe of Satan" dissolving inside for a while now. I might add some blood meal. It's a shame I can't get some Dippel's Oil. It should transform their olfactory environment into a hellscape of repulsion, dread, bitterness, and burning.
- NotYourLawyer 4y agoNileRed did a video about this chemical. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GOw_I42eUpM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GOw_I42eUpM
- FireBeyond 4y agoUsed to (still kinda is) used by firefighters to test the seal on your SCBA mask. Put your mask on, put a hood on, spray Bitrex into the hood. Though mostly now we test via computer and a pump and measure vacuums.
- stevespang 4y ago[dead]
- m348e912 4y agoWatch batteries will essentially erode a child's esophogus if swallowed and stuck through a chemical reaction that dissolves tissue. This kills the child. It's common to see watch batteries coated with a substance like this to dissuade toddlers from putting the watch battery in their mouth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ApVlDCEjc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ApVlDCEjc
- KMnO4 4y agoInteresting. I saw it on some 2032s and figured it was for choking (similar to the Nintendo Switch carts). Dissolving tissue sounds worse.
- vishnugupta 4y agoAside: the name is virtually indistinguishable from Bittrex (https://global.bittrex.com https://global.bittrex.com) a crypto exchange.
- triyambakam 4y agoThat's what I thought this was, and thought they must have released a new product.
- radicality 4y agoIf you ever need to change your AirTag battery, do not buy Duracell ones, or any which advertise this anti-swallow bitter coating. The battery will simply not work at all, at least for an airtag. I then bought non-coated Energizer batteries, and the AirTag immediately worked again. I understand that this is a preventative measure, but from a customer point of view that was just an awful experience. The battery had one job to do, and it failed to do it because of the bitterant coating.
- milgrim 4y agoYou should be able to remove the coating with alcohol, works for me.
- marceldegraaf 4y agoHa, this bit me a few weeks ago. Almost went back to the store with the Duracell batteries, thinking they were empty on arrival because none of them worked in any of my AirTags, until I found out the bittering agent was the problem.
- NotYourLawyer 4y agoHow strange. Does the airtag have particularly weak spring tension pushing the electrodes into the battery?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- benj111 4y ago>Contact Bitrex Head Office, Macfarlan Smith, 10 Wheatfield Road, Edinburgh, EH11 2QA, Scotland, United Kingdom Well it would be the Scots that sell the bitterest substance in the world...
- tupilaq 4y agoBigClive tries it so we don't have to[1]. The taste test starts at 2:35, but, as ever, the whole thing is worth watching. [1]https://youtu.be/ep2I3Gf3Sec https://youtu.be/ep2I3Gf3Sec
- Moissanite 4y agoThere is a cleaning product called "Stardrops" in the UK which has advertised itself as having this stuff included for decades - probably a big deal for them, since the logo used to be a smiley little falling star; obviously much more appealing to children than most cleaner fluid containers.
- k_sze 4y agoAm I the only one who thought this would be used for some “unconventional” cuisine before opening the link?
- sk0g 4y agoOh lord that reminded me, when I was in India for a bit people kept trying to convince me to eat this horrible vegetable called bitter gourd, it just tastes like battery acid no matter how it was prepared! I forgot all about that till I tasted a Switch cartridge, and then till I read your comment! If you've ever tried Vegemite by the spoonful, the vegetable is a whole lot worse still.
- k_sze 4y agoI'm Chinese and I love bitter gourd. It's one of our staple vegetables and we have multiple cultivars of it for different levels of bitterness, crunchiness, etc. Some dishes we often make: bitter gourd slices stir-fried with beef, shrimps, or scrambled egg. Of course, I suppose Bitrex is a lot bitterer than the bitterest bitter gourd.
- sk0g 4y agoOh interesting, could you recommend any dishes that use it well? There's quite a sizable Chinese population where I live, so I can probably find it prepared authentically enough :) To be honest I never saw much effort going into preparing it. It was just sliced, hollowed out, and then fried. I'm not sure if there's a way to tone down the bitterness, but the only justification for its inclusion I got was "it's healthy" or "it's an antioxidant".
- k_sze 4y ago> I'm not sure if there's a way to tone down the bitterness The bitterness is the whole point. It’s an acquired tasted, just like beer. Once you get used to it, you understand how it makes your meal as a whole feel less greasy and less cloying. If your really want, you can tone down the bitterness by lightly dry-frying the bitter gourd slices. The stir-fry with scrambled eggs is a home classic, Cantonese cooks can usually make it. Black fermented soybeans is often added to the stir-fry with beef slices. Bitter gourd can also be used to cook soup, with pork bones and soybeans. It can also be hollowed out, filled with seasoned minced pork, and then steamed as a type of dim sum.
- amelius 4y agoReminds me of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thioacetone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thioacetone > In 1889, an attempt to distill the chemical in the German city of Freiburg was followed by cases of vomiting, nausea and unconsciousness in an area with a radius of 0.75 kilometres (0.47 mi) around the laboratory due to the smell.
- Kelteseth 4y agoNileRed - Making the stinkiest chemical known to man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmAG8-V_WQY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmAG8-V_WQY
- ygra 4y agoAnd a seemingly ongoing joke with those things seem to be that he doesn't consider those substances that bad, while his camera operator is retching despite being 10 meters further away.
- extraduder_ire 4y agoI don't think it's a joke. He's either desensitised himself while making the compound, or knowing what it is has enough of a psychological effect to prevent much reaction. (I got the latter impression watching his video on making "metal-smell") I think it smells worse with dilution too, as they noted in the video.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- alfanick 4y agoIt's an interesting substance - shared some anecdote already some time ago here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30086522 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30086522 My dad was an inventor of one of engineering processes for making Denatonium Benzoate, I lived with and around this substance for hmm 23 years :) You get used to bitterness.
- DebtDeflation 4y agoI wish they would go back to adding this to ethanol to make denatured alcohol for use as cooking fuel and solvent. Nowadays, when you buy denatured alcohol you're likely getting a witches brew of ethanol, methanol, MEK, MIBK, and acetone with an exact formula that is nearly impossible to pin down and changes all the time. Not optimal if you want something relatively non-toxic and want to know in advance exactly what it will and will not dissolve.