Question

(a) What are non-narcotic analgesics? Write examples
(b) Why is artificial sweetening agent, Aspartame used only in soft and cold drinks?
(c) Write any one difference between antiseptic and disinfectants.

Answer 1

Part a) Find out what is the meaning of an analgesic and non-narcotic drugs. Whenever we suffer from a headache, we just pop in a crocin tablet. Find out the contents present in the tablet and how they help in suppressing the pain.
Part b) Consider the stability of the given sweetening agent over different temperature ranges. Find out the properties of aspartame.
Part c) We all were subjected to cuts and injuries while playing in childhood. Recollect the medication that was first applied on the wounded to clean it. Dettol is used in varying dilutions in our home. Find out why the dilution is mentioned on the bottle and its significance.

Complete step by step answer:
(a) Analgesics are neurologically active drugs. These affect the message transfer mechanism from nerve to receptor. They are medicines that are used to relieve pain. Also popularly known as painkillers or pain relievers. The term analgesic refers to a medication that provides relief from pain without putting you to sleep or making you lose consciousness.
Non-narcotic analgesics are medications used to control pain and inflammation and that do not act on the central nervous system. They don’t contain narcotic drugs like Opioids which cause heavy addiction. Narcotic drugs are the medications which interact with the nervous system and cause addiction on prolonged use like morphine, codeine, etc.
Examples of non-narcotic drugs are Aspirin, Disprin, Ibuprofen and Paracetamol.

(b) Aspartame is the most successful and most widely used artificial sweetener in cold drinks, cakes, etc. Aspartame is roughly 100 times sweeter than cane sugar. It is a methyl ester of dipeptide formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine. It is stable at low temperatures. On exposure to high temperature, aspartame disintegrates into aspartic acid and phenylalanine methyl ester. Therefore, use of aspartame is limited to cold foods and soft drinks because it is unstable at cooking temperature.

(c) Antiseptics are the chemicals which are used to sterilize (free from microorganisms) the living tissues such as wounds, cuts, ulcers and diseased skin surfaces. Examples are furacine, soframycin. The most commonly used antiseptic, dettol, is a mixture of chloroxylenol and terpineol. Bithionol (also called bithional) is also added to soaps to impart antiseptic properties. An example of natural antiseptic is turmeric which has organic compounds like curcumin which has antiseptic property. Also, while injecting, any injection doctor applies spirit (methanol) on the skin before inserting the syringe to make the skin sterile and reduce or inhibit the risk of any infection at the site of injection.
Disinfectants are chemicals used to sterilize (free from microorganisms) inanimate objects such as floors, drainage system, instruments, etc. Chlorine in around the concentration of 0.2 to 0.4 ppm in aqueous solution and sulphur dioxide in very low concentrations, are disinfectants. Some other examples are septol which is widely used in pathology laboratories to disinfect work areas and Dettol in undiluted form is also a disinfectant.
Basic difference is disinfectants are more concentrated than antiseptics. Care should be taken while handling disinfectants because they can be corrosive at times like septol. Antiseptics are dilute forms of disinfectants specially made for use on skin cuts and wounds.

Note: Same substances can act as an antiseptic as well as disinfectant by varying the concentration like Dettol. Remember narcotic drugs cause addiction as they directly hit the central nervous system and cause hallucination or other hangover effects. Non-narcotic drugs do not act on the central nervous system. Analgesics are the drugs which help relieve pain like paracetamol. Aspartame is stable at low temperature only.