2025 Volume 44 Issue 1 Pages 24-33
Purpose: To visually impress upon school students that medicine should be taken with a full glass of cool or lukewarm water as part of medical education on pharmaceuticals, we conducted an experiment in which pharmaceutical drugs were added to juice and the foaming behavior was observed. However, the degree of foaming differed depending on the type of juice and medicine, and consistent experimental results could not be obtained. Therefore, a basic study was conducted to elucidate the selection criteria for juices and medicines suitable for this experiment. Method: 3.0 grams of reagent-grade sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) was added to about 100 mL of various types of juice, and the height of the foam was measured promptly with a ruler for comparison. In addition, we added one packet of different medicines containing NaHCO3 to grapefruit juice (GFJ), and measured the foam height for comparison. Furthermore, we conducted experiments to test 3.0-5.0 grams of food-grade NaHCO3. We also examined their convenience, cost, and portability. Results and Discussion: The study suggested that 100% GFJ may lead to significant foaming, and this foaming volume seems to be influenced by the number of moles of acidic groups in the juice neutralized by NaOH. Higher NaHCO3 in one packet content produced a greater amount of foam. A large amount of food-grade NaHCO3 also increased the amount of foaming. These results led to the creation of our experiment protocol. We believe that it is possible to implement effective medical education utilizing this protocol.
