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In chemistry, an alkali ( /ˈælkəlaɪ/; from Arabic: al-qaly القلي, القالي ) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base, especially for soluble bases. This broad use of the term is likely to have come about because alkalis were the first bases known to obey the Arrhenius definition of a base and are still among the more common bases.

Etymology[link]

The word "alkali" is derived from Arabic al qalīy (or alkali),^[1] meaning the calcined ashes (see calcination), referring to the original source of alkaline substances. A water-extract of burned plant ashes, called potash and composed mostly of potassium carbonate, was mildly basic. After heating this substance with calcium hydroxide (slaked lime), a far more strongly basic substance known as caustic potash (potassium hydroxide) was produced. Caustic potash was traditionally used in conjunction with animal fats to produce soft soaps, one of the caustic processes that rendered soaps from fats in the process of saponification, known since antiquity. Plant potash lent the name to the element potassium, which was first derived from caustic potash, and also gave potassium its chemical symbol K (cf German Kalium), which ultimately derives from alkali.

Common properties[link]

Alkalis are all Arrhenius bases, which form hydroxide ions (OH^-) when dissolved in water. Common properties of alkaline aqueous solutions include:

• Moderately concentrated solutions (over 10⁻³ M) have a pH of 7.1 or greater. This means that they will turn phenolphthalein from colorless to pink.
• Concentrated solutions are caustic (causing chemical burns).
• Alkaline solutions are slippery or soapy to the touch, due to the saponification of the fatty substances on the surface of the skin.
• Alkalis are normally water soluble, although some like barium carbonate are only soluble when reacting with an acidic aqueous solution.
• Acids and alkalis are measured on a pH scale
• Turns Universal Indicator Blue-Dark Purple.

Difference between alkali and base[link]

The terms "base" and "alkali" are often used interchangeably, particularly outside of a scientific context.

There are various definitions for alkali. Alkali is often defined as a subset of base. However, two subsets are commonly chosen.

• A basic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal^[2] (This includes Mg(OH)₂ but excludes NH₃.)
• Any base that is water-soluble and forms hydroxide ions^[3][4][5] or the solution of a base in water.^[6] (This excludes Mg(OH)₂ but includes NH₃.)

The second subset of base is also called an Arrhenius base.

Salts[link]

Most basic salts are alkali salts, of which common examples are:

• sodium hydroxide (often called "caustic soda")
• potassium hydroxide (commonly called "caustic potash")
• lye (generic term, for either of the previous two, or even for a mixture)
• calcium carbonate (sometimes called "free lime" or "limewater")
• magnesium hydroxide is an example of an atypical alkali since it has low solubility in water (although the dissolved portion is considered a strong base due to complete dissociation of its ions).

Alkaline soil[link]

Soil with a pH value higher than 7.3 is normally referred to as alkaline. This soil property can occur naturally, due to the presence of alkali salts. Although some plants do prefer slightly basic soil (including vegetables like cabbage and fodder like buffalograss), most plants prefer a mildly acidic soil (pH between 6.0 and 6.8), and alkaline soils can cause problems.

Alkali lakes[link]

In alkali lakes (a type of salt lake), evaporation concentrates the naturally occurring alkali salts, often forming a crust of mildly basic salt across a large area.

Examples of alkali lakes:

• Alkali Lake, British Columbia, Canada Referenced in feature movies X-Men II and III
• Alkali Lake (Oregon), Oregon, United States
• Baldwin Lake (San Bernardino County, California)
• Mono lake, California, United States
• Redberry Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada
• Summer Lake, Oregon, United States
• Tramping Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada
• Lake Magadi, Kenya
• Lake Turkana, Kenya (the largest alkali lake in the world)

See also[link]

• Base (chemistry)
• Alkali metal

References[link]

Hiromi Shinya (新谷 弘実, Shin'ya Hiromi^?, born 1935) is a Japanese-born general surgeon. He practices half of the year in Japan and the other half in the United States^{[citation needed]}. He is a clinical professor of surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University^{[citation needed]}; head of the endoscopic center at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, New York; and Vice-chairman of the Japanese Medical Association^{[citation needed]} in the United States. He pioneered modern colonoscopic techniques, and invented the electrosurgical polypectomy snare now common on colonoscopes, allowing for removal of colon polyps without invasive surgery.

Shinya is also known for his health theory. He has authored a number of books, many of them in Japanese.

Early life[link]

Hiromi Shinya was born in 1935 in the city of Yanagawa in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (Shinya Medical Clinic: About Dr. Shinya). From a young age, his mother encouraged him to earn a medical degree and pursue medicine in the United States. He graduated from Juntendo University School of Medicine in 1960. He then applied with nine hundred other candidates for one of fourteen openings for interns at the United States Naval Hospital in Yokosuka. Passage of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates examination was required for the program, necessitating a high degree of English fluency, so he "spent a lot of time going to American movies" (Sivak 2004, p. 978) to prepare.

Professional career[link]

Following the internship, Dr. Shinya began his residency at Toho University Hospital, with the hope of becoming a neurosurgeon. However, when a position was offered to him in 1963 in another program to which he had applied, he accepted it. He left Japan for New York, New York to complete a surgical residency at Beth Israel Medical Center. In 1967, Dr. Shinya became involved with colonoscopy as a senior resident at Beth Israel. (Shinya Medical Clinic: About Dr. Shinya).

Dr. Shinya began developing colonoscopic techniques with an esophagoscope from Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.. The instrument was a short fiberscope with a two-way maneuverable tip and was designed for use on the esophagus, but with it, Dr. Shinya was able to reach the splenic flexure--the first bend in the colon—about 50% of the time. While other doctors were concurrently developing colonoscopic techniques, most of them practiced a two-person technique, with one person controlling the direction of the tip while the other controlled insertion. Dr. Shinya was in the minority who rejected this procedure, preferring to develop methods which allowed one endoscopist to perform colonoscopy reliably. As a result, "many and probably most of the fundamental principles of the procedure [colonoscopy] were developed by Dr. Shinya" (Sivak 2004, p. 978). By the beginning of 1969, Olympus had introduced several iterations of dedicated colonoscopes, and Dr. Shinya was able to reach the cecum--located at the end of the colon—in 90% of his patients (Sivak 2004, pp. 978–9).

Dr. Shinya's other major contribution to colonoscopy was the invention of the electrosurgical polypectomy snare, with the support of Olympus employee Hiroshi Ichikawa. Even before the results of the National Polyp Study linked colon polyps to colon cancer, Dr. Shinya instinctively "thought the polyp was the forerunner of cancer and that removing these polyps could reduce the risk of cancer" (Sivak 2004, p. 979). Since polyp removal accounted for 30% of the colon surgery of the day, Dr. Shinya's primary focus from his first experiences with colonoscopy was a noninvasive method of performing polypectomy. On January 8, 1969, he and Hiroshi Ichikawa sketched out the first plans for a snare attached to the end of a colonoscope that would allow for easy removal of polyps during colonoscopy (Sivak 2004, p. 979). They experimented with different types of wire, testing them on animal bowels. Within a few months, they had a workable polypectomy snare (Sivak 2004, p. 981). Dr. Shinya then performed the first colonoscopic electrosurgical snare polypectomy in September 1969. In 1970, he delivered the first report of the procedure to the New York Surgical Society, and in May 1971 presented his experiences to the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (Sivak 2004, p. 977,981).

This development made Dr. Shinya famous worldwide. There was immediate demand for his procedure, with his performing 20 colonoscopies a day. To date, he has performed approximately 370,000^{[citation needed]} colonoscopies and given nearly 300 live demonstrations of the technique. Polypectomy has gone on to surpass "all other endoscopic therapeutic procedures in terms of numbers performed" and "impacts the lives of millions of people throughout the world." According to Michael Sivak, Jr., it is the most important achievement in gastrointestinal endoscopy (Sivak 2004, p. 981).

Claims on Health[link]

Shinya is also known for his claims on health, but he has repeatedly done deceiving citations in commercial advertisements.

Dr. Shinya has authored many books, of which Living without Disease: A Miracle Enzyme Determines Life (in Japanese. The original title is: '病気にならない生き方 ミラクル・エンザイムが寿命を決める') is the most well-known, which is said to have sold more than a million copies in Japan.^[1]

Shinya has recommended in advertisements^[2][3] to take enzyme from your meal. There he cites a medical paper^[4] which is irrelevant to his claim; the article reports decrease in the secretion quantity of three kinds of digestive enzyme (and bicarbonate) from pancrea which is speculated to be due to aging. It has nothing to do with nutrients intake. He also says^[2] that nutrients in vegetables are poorer in recent years, and that it's diffcult to take sufficient enzyme from meal only, by showing a chart based on references^[5] of years 1963 and 2008. But they only show values of beta-carotene, vitamin C and iron included in spinach and carrot, not of enzyme. On the other hand, Shinya fails to show any evidence to reinforce his idea.

He claims that his prescription of water has 0% cancer recurrence rate (Shinya , The Enzyme Factor, p. 7), but notice that such miraculous, so to say, treatment is unknown to date.

Notes and references[link]

1. Sivak, Michael V. Jr. (2004). "Polypectomy: Looking Back". Gastrointestinal Endoscopy 60 (6): 977–982. DOI:10.1016/S0016-5107(04)02380-6. PMID 15605015. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0016510704023806. 
2. "About Dr. Hiromi Shinya". Shinya Medical Clinic. http://www.shinyamedicalgrp.com/en/shinya.html. Retrieved 2007-10-04. 
3. Hiromi Shinya. (2007). The Enzyme Factor. San Francisco: Council Oak Books. ISBN 1-57178-209-5. 

1. ^ In Japan, there's no neutral statistics, and it's the publisher's claim. See ja:ミリオンセラー.
2. ^ ^{a b} Advertisement in Asahi Shimbun, Jul 6, 2011, p 23 (Japanese)
3. ^ Advretisements in Asahi Shimbun, Aug 6, 2011, p. e4 and Aug 23, 2011, p23. (Japanese)
4. ^ Exocrine pancreatic secretion in the elderly Vellas et al, International Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer, 3 (1988) 497
5. ^ Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (ja:日本食品標準成分表, Japanese)

See also[link]

• Scientific misconduct
• Pseudoscience
• Tondemo-bon