While the Coronavirus is raging, Amuchina has become one of the most sought-after products, unobtainable except at exorbitant prices. But does anyone know the story of this transparent gel that has only just come to the fore?
The inventor of the Amuchina is Oronzio De Nora, an Apulian engineer born in Altamura at the end of the 19th century; he patented the product in Germany and then sold the brand, which is now owned by Angelini Pharma.
In recent days his story has emerged, told in the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno by the journalist Onofrio Bruno. De Nora (1899-1995) was a revolutionary electrical engineer, a visionary in the applications of chemistry in industry. The company, founded in Milan in 1923, still exists and deals with sustainable technologies, energy saving and water treatment.
During his university years at the Milan Polytechnic, it was the same teachers who spurred his research on chlorine and caustic soda and thus it was that, in his early twenties, he filed the famous patent for the production of sodium hypochlorite cataloged under the number 1811. Thus Amuchina was born.
Oronzio De Nora was an innovator, his scientific discoveries facilitated plants that used chlorine-soda processes in water purification treatments and anodes for the pharmaceutical industry.
The leap in quality dates back to 1969, when he patented the Dsa technology, which has become a standard in the chemical industry. The first Italian company to enter the Japanese market, it counts big names such as Bayer and Solvay among its customers, eventually becoming Apple's official supplier for electronics. Today the group is in the hands of
grandchildren, has more than 1,500 employees and nine offices. Although Oronzio's surname is closely linked to Milan, De Nora's trace can still be found in Altamura in the name of his father Michele (civil engineer) to whom a higher education school is named. [Written by Swabian Marchetti The ]
Sodium hypochlorite is the sodium salt of hypochlorous acid. Its chemical formula is NaClO.
Variably diluted from 1% to approximately 25% in an aqueous solution, it is straw-yellow in color and has a characteristic penetrating odour. It is known in common use as a whitener and disinfectant, with the following names:
- bleach, from the verb bleach, what does it mean make white, white, used to cleanse, disinfect bathroom fixtures and floors, remove stains, whiten or discolor non-coloured fabrics and clothing.
- varicose, bleach, lizardor bleach, from the French varech, seaweed from which soda was obtained.
- Amuchina(trade name of Angelini) in a more diluted solution, it is used as a food disinfectant.
- nectarine or nitorina, used above all in northern Italy, especially in Romagna, whose meaning is make shining, i.e. crisp, clear, clean, white.
- little wateror buy, mostly used in Tuscany.
- neveinaor niveina, used in central and southern Italy, and which means, precisely, to make white like the snow.
- conegrine, of uncertain etymology and of Piedmontese-Lombard use.
- Labarraque water, by the French chemist who studied it, Antoine Germain Labarraque (1777-1850).
- Javel water (from the French eau de Javel).
Due to its oxidizing action, as well as being used as a whitener and disinfectant, sodium hypochlorite is a sporicide, a fungicide and a virucide.
It is also used, titrated in active chlorine at 5% and often heated, as the main root canal irrigant in endodontics (branch of dentistry).
A solution of sodium hypochlorite, in various titrations, is used for the disinfection and cleaning of hemodialysis equipment.
