Comment · Fri, May 8, 2015 · Ceretropic
What makes Ceretropic's Caffeine/NALT special?
Original post in this thread
Jackolysis · 29 points
Because it's ionically bonded would this not just disassociate in solution? At the moment it seems like this is just caffeine and NALT ions floating in water and PG. Would this be any different from just taking 200mg of caffeine and 200mg of NALT respectively?
Or is there something special about the ions of the two substances?
What they were answering
mlukeman · 14 points
As a chemist, I'd have to say that the 'ionically bonded' thing is just marketing BS. "Ionically bonded" means that the caffeine and NALT are oppositely charged and attract each other. This is plausible, since NALT is an acid (a modified amino acid) and caffeine is a base, although if you compare the pK*_a_*s of the two, only a small percentage of the molecules will form ions. Secondly, since they are in solution, the ions will be strongly solvated, and any ionic attractions will be very weak. If they were strong, the molecules would stick together and clump up and form a solid that would sink to the bottom.
Another thing - ions are less readily absorbed than neutral molecules since they have a hard time passing through cell membranes. If you swallow the liquid, they end up in a very acidic environment anyway (your stomach) in which case the NALT would be reprotonated and no longer be anionic.
I think they just put that on the package because it sounds scientific which might make people more willing to buy it.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Yeah, I am just making shit up guys. You caught me... All the people raving about it? Yeah, those are my fake accounts. The solubilities for the parent components being much less than what is in the solution? Yep, magic. It's just marketing and magic. Don't buy it.
You don't understand how we did it? That's fine. But don't say I am making shit up to sell things. It's just such a low hanging way to approach a situation. I've had two chemists now use appeals to authority to call my work bullshit, and it is pissing me off. I will explain everything, once our patents are approved, and I have made sure that we are protected legally. If you don't want to buy it till then, then so be it. I really don't care. I put out novel products that I believe in. If people want to buy them, then fantastic. If not, that's fine too. But I am not going to stand by while people saying I am just making things up for marketing. I am also not going to be baited into divulging too much information about the specifics of how the solution is made, until I am sure we having things covered from a legal perspective.
I don't encourage people to post here. I don't advertise, go after customers, or make crazy effect claims. I don't want the subreddit to turn into people constantly asking Ceretropic questions, pissing people off. I would much rather delete all these posts, and not have to deal with all the drama. I want to create products that speak for themselves, and I think they have. I had to create a description for the Caffeine/NALT that was a good enough explanation, but did not give away too much too early. If you think that is just bullshit, whatever. But there is 200mg of both Caffeine and N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine in each milliliter of solution, when each alone are not anywhere near that soluble at room temp. So it's either fucking magic, or we found a way to make that chemically possible. You're the chemist. Figure it out.