Urea is present in urine.
Urea is one of the components of urine . It is an organic chemical compound that dissolves in alcohol and water and has the ability to crystallize.
The chemical formula of urea is CO(NH2)2 . This diamide (its molecule has two amide groups) of carbonic acid lacks color and odor: therefore it can be said that urea is colorless and odorless .
In addition to urine, urea is present in fecal matter , blood , semen , and lymph , among other fluids and substances. It also appears in the bones, lungs, liver and heart. Urea is produced when proteins are metabolized and elements that have nitrogen are degraded.
urea cycle
The process that results in the formation of this chemical compound is known as the urea cycle . Animals that develop the excretion of amino nitrogen as urea are classified as ureotelic . On the other hand, if the expulsion of amino nitrogen occurs as ammonia, the organisms are called ammonotelic , while if they do so as uric acid they are classified as uricotelic .
The discovery of urea in urine took place in 1727 , by the scientist Herman Boerhaave , originally from the Netherlands, although some attribute it to Hilaire Rouelle , a French chemist. Only a century later, a chemist from Germany named Friedrich Wöhler managed to obtain urea artificially , through the combination of ammonium chloride and silver cyanate; It is worth mentioning that never before has an organic compound been synthesized with inorganic materials and without using living organisms.
Urea is used as fertilizer.
Its use as fertilizer
It is important to highlight that urea can be used in different contexts. Urea is used to produce resins, plastics, inks , cosmetics and adhesives, among other substances. Most urea, however, is used as fertilizer . When applied to the ground, crops receive nitrogen. Urea can also be mixed with livestock feed, as a complement that helps form proteins.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, almost all of the urea produced - 91% - is used to create fertilizer . In addition to its application to the soil to provide nitrogen to plants, there is foliar fertilizer, which is achieved with low biuret urea, a reagent that is used to detect the presence of compounds with a minimum of two peptide bonds, such as peptides. shorts and proteins.
It is necessary to dissolve the foliar fertilizer before applying it to the leaves; The plants in which it is used are usually fruit trees, especially citrus trees. Nitrogen is essential for the metabolism of plants , since it directly affects the number of leaves and stems that develop, whose presence is essential to carry out photosynthesis .
This type of fertilizer can be used in various types of crops, and is always necessary to counteract the great loss of nitrogen that the harvest entails. It is important to apply urea to the soil correctly, preventing it from remaining on the surface .
Other uses of urea
Regarding the use of urea for the industrial production of certain materials , such as plastics, we can also mention finishes for textile, metal or paper articles, and pharmaceutical products. A specific example is urea-formaldehyde , a type of adhesive or resin that does not soften with heat once it has been molded.
On the other hand, urea can be used as an adulterant to manufacture drugs , and among them is methamphetamine , a highly potent psychostimulant, indicated to treat attention deficit, narcolepsy and obesity.