Di Giacomo Mario Menegola
Potassium! We know it’s important to our health and we can find it in some fruit and vegetables (and this explains the pun), but are we really sure that’s all Potassium is doing for us?
A bit of History first. It was 1807 and Sir Humphry Davy was finally able to isolate the metallic form of the element, which is its purest form, and had to give the element he found a name. The one he chose comes from an ancient, but at his time common, way to make soap: burning some wood, usually oak or beech, and boiling the ashes in a pot to make potash (the ash of the pot), an irritating substance that, mixed with the right proportion of fat, makes soap. Since it was potash that provided him what he needed to complete the experiment successfully (a source of the element, in which potash is rich), he gave the element its name, adapting the English one to scientific Latin. Thus Potassium’s name was born.
Afterwards, Potassium went on to be recognized as an element by the scientific community. However, when it came to put it in the periodic table of elements, they needed a symbol for it, so they used the medieval Latin word for potash, kalium- come from the arabic word al-qalya, which means “plant ashes”, referring, in fact, to potash, from which also derived the English word alkali-, giving Potassium the “K” symbol we use today.
Today Potassium is still that important to us, to our hygiene: in fact, one of its compounds, Potassium Hydroxide, also called caustic potash, is still used today in the production of soap, just the way it was back in Sir Davy’s time; of course, nowadays potash is synthesized and does not come from burning wood anymore, at least in most cases: some artisanal producers may still use the old method to get potash, but their number is really small compared to the ones who don’t.
Potassium, as said at the beginning, is also important to our health, as it permits our muscles to contract, making us move, and helps us to regulate blood pressure. We can get our daily requirement by eating fruit, vegetables and legumes and, talking about eating of course, bananas are commonly considered one of the best sources of Potassium.
In times of pandemic like ours Potassium is really important to us, to our hygiene and health, and it helps us in many ways. So the next time you eat some fruit or wash your hands, know this: Potassium is there for you.
