Lamentations on Chemistry

I’ve been really curious about the UV/Vis Spectrum of Pomegranate juice, so I finally broke down and ran the spectrum.  I bought commercially available Odwalla Pomegranate Juice from Safeway and diluted 0.50 mL of this juice in 100 mL (+/- 1 mL) of distilled H2O.  It is approximately 200 to 1 dilution. This commercial juice is also mixed with Chokecherry, Elderberry, Blueberry, Black Currant, and Apple juices, as well as a bit of citric acid. I’m going to try to get plain pomegranate juice for comparison.

I took a bit of the diluted soln and added some metals to it to see if there were any shifts in peak wavelength.  The two shoulders (~250 and ~350 nm) were unchanged in wavelength and extinction, but the extinction of the peak at 193 nm was increased. The metals were SnCl2, ZnCl2, FeCl3, and MnOAc2.  The Mn(II) Acetate has a fair extinction at ~195 nm but drops sharply at ca 200 nm. In all cases the shoulders remained. I would have to run a control to see if the consistent uptick in extinction at 193 nm is due to the metal ions.

When the dilute juice soln was treated with a few grains of NaIO4, the shoulders disappeared and the soln promptly took a clear yellow color. So it should be possible to follow the oxidative degradation of these solutions by UV/Vis.  Since the juice is a complex mix of chromaphores, there is no telling what species are involved and what exactly is being oxidized.  I’m sure that someone has sorted out what is in pomegranate juice. 

This is what I did with a saturday afternoon.

In the business world, most people will claim to appreciate the value of competition. Everybody understands how competition causes prices to trend downwards . And everybody has a basic grasp on the argument that monopoly domination of a market is ultimately stifling to innovation.  But despite this understanding of the merits of competition, people still try to get as close to monopoly as they are allowed. 

There are two sides to any business- the sell side and the buy side. The sell side hates competition and the buy side loves it. The sell side wants to eliminate competition and grab as much market share as it can.  The buy side wants to promote competition to drive down the cost of raw materials and services.  All businesses have this sort of left brain, right brain relationship with competition.

The sales folk know all too well the blinding power of competition.  I remember many meetings where I have made heartfelt and sincere presentations to reassure a customer that our company is there for them , but regrettably the product we had been supplying for years was going to suffer a minor price increase.  My Swiss Army knife of sales tools was wide open and all of the tools had gouge marks on them. The customer seemed pursuaded.  But this was the calm before the storm. 

At first, and with a hurt look on his face and an alligator tear running down his cheek, he’ll exclaim that it has come to his attention that there are two other vendors with substantially better pricing. Then, stiffening up noticeably, he’ll go on to say that apparently they had been paying far too much for far too long.  Some procurement people will even accuse you of making them look bad in front of their management. Others will just shrug and sit there staring at you silently, waiting for you to hack up a price concession.

This is the point where the skilled sales person gives a performance worthy of Lawrence Olivier. You regain your composure and put on the most cheerful face you can.  Here is where your collection of euphamisms comes in handy.  My personal favorite- “Well, we’ll have to go back and sharpen our pencils and see what we can do.  We’ll be in touch soon”.  Did you get that? Sharpen our pencils?  The really smooth purchasing people will use it first- “We think you need to sharpen your pencils on this pricing…”.

When a purchasing person says this to you, it is actually a gift. It is a graceful way of saying that you need to stop being stupid and requote a fair price. It is a gift because they haven’t disqualified you just yet. It is a last chance.  Some purchasing people are very haughty and take high prices personally. When you ship a quote to them that was out of line, they won’t even bother to reply or try to negotiate.  Like a fly, they just hop over to the next hot dung pile.