Boron
As a trace element in food for plants and animals
Weary of Nasty Issues? Browse Here
Big Lies Website
This is an interesting example of personal empirical research, i.e. trying to see what happens by looking around. Boron in human food was (I think) first looked into by Rex E Newnham, who developed arthritis (osteo-arthritis I presume) as, he suspected, a result of eating food grown mostly in poor soil—in Australia. He was expert in plants, and he knew that boron was essential to plant growth. I believe he self-medicated and found his arthritis was relieved, or perhaps cured. (I'm summarising from memory; details may be wrong/ missing).
That started in 1963 (I read). Newnham collected evidence of boron in food and water vs arthritis in populations which didn't move much. All these things are tricky to estimate, as people may move and their food may have come from round the world. Boron compound deposits may be very irregular, and have different properties per compound.
Now (2019) there's a lot of interest in boron; I note for example a video recommending drinking borax dissolved in water. The maximum intake seems to have settled at about 12 mg per day. I see the EU imposed restrictions on borax, possibly believing it to be poisonous. There are supplements on sale, but the active ingredient is listed as sodium borate, not borax.
Chemistry textbooks don't say much about boron. The periodic table has H, and later C, N, O in sequence, from which a vast array of proteins and foods are made, plus Calcium and Phosphorus for bones, with many incidental minerals. Boric acid/ borax is poisonous to some creatures: ants, cockroaches, but not greenfly, and probably not to people. This suggests the mechanism may damage exoskeletons, or oxygen diffusion (but not pumping), or perhaps use boron compounds in combination with sugars, or maybe boron combined with nitrogen—these are not very serious suggestions, but it's clear from
reference books on biology and toxins that not much is known, except that many plants need it. Borax in the technically correct sense wasn't widely available until the 19th century, except in some desert areas, so all this is perhaps not surprising. Boron tends to be grouped with trivalent metals, such as aluminium. It's conceivable it could cause long-term poisoning judging by some of its analogues. It's a brown substance, not very different from charcoal and other forms of carbon, though, because of its valency, it tends to form cages of atoms, in the same way that carbon can form 'buckminsterfullerene', except that boron links up in smaller, pentagonal, arrays.
Anyway: watch for strange-sounding suggestions involving boron. For example that strong bones and teeth are associated with boron. (Not fluoride!) I came across this idea by chance; I'm pretty certain I haven't heard of it before.
Some elements and vitamins have a relatively obvious function, given knowledge: common salt, sodium chloride, provides hydrochloric acid to the stomach, and makes the rest of the body alkaline. Iron obviously is necessary for red blood corpuscles. Iodine is needed for thyroxin. Calcium is needed for bones. Vitamin C helps blood oxygenation, because its molecule can carry oxygen but leave it with indifference. BUT many elements, though proven to be necessary, are obscure in their functions; what about copper and zinc for example? Of these, the operation of boron isn't clear, even in plants. I have to say I'm not very optimistic about fast progress here: the 'literature' has all the hallmarks of the 20th century's bad biological science, such cellular myths as apoptosis, cell pores, signals. For a long time people who ask "How does boron do what it's supposed to do?" will have to be told "Nobody knows yet."
RW 23.5.2019 28.5.2019 1.6.2019