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Chloroform: Surgical Procedure

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Although this application has been discontinued, Chloroform is greatest known for it’s first use as an anesthetic. Prior to Chloroform, ether was the prevailing anesthetic for surgical procedures.However once Chloroform was introduced, ether was quickly replaced. Unlike ether, chloroform’s characteristically sweet odour isn 't irritating and was highly adored because it is 40 times sweeter than sugar. The sweetness of Chloroform coupled with it’s anesthetic properties made it a popular ingredient for toothpaste, cough syrup and skin ointments. Although nitrous oxide is the currently prevalent anesthetic used today, Chloroform is more effective as an anaesthetic. Chloroform’s rapid effects and great potency is due to it’s property of being well absorbed, metabolized, and eliminated rapidly by the body after oral, inhalation, or dermal exposure. …show more content…

Chloroform is considered to be an organic nonpolar solvent with a fairly low solubility in water of 8 mg/mL at temperature of 20 degrees celsius. However, due to its slight polarity, it retains the ability to dissolve compounds ranging from moderately polar to moderately nonpolar. Worldwide, chloroform is also used in pesticide formulations, as a solvent for fats, oils, rubber, alkaloids, waxes, and resins. Chloroform is a common solvent because it is relatively unreactive, miscible with most organic liquids, and conveniently

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