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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Is rochelle salt edible?
Quickstart: Cream of Tartar is reported as an aid towards quitting smoking. Readers did not resolve whether it is safe or not, but do claim a simple recipe for making it from baking soda and cream of tartar which seem safe enough.
Q. Can anyone tell me if Rochelle salt is edible. Is it available in the UK? (Sounds a daft question but I can't find any.) The reason being that I found a tip to help stop smoking. Mix half a teaspoon of Rochelle salt with a little cream of tartar, take before breakfast, should keep you off cigarettes all day.
Regards,
- Nottingham, UK
2003
A. Rochelle salt is potassium sodium tartrate ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . I do not know a source of BP standard, but it is widely available from chemical supply houses; however, I would not suggest using this source as a medicine as it is almost certainly not BP standard. Although Rochelle salt has medically been used as a mild purgative, I'm sure there are better ways of stopping smoking! As an example of its assessed toxicity, it has an LD50 in rats (oral intake) of 1250 mg/kg, compared with salt (NaCl) of 3,000 mg/kg and sodium bicarbonate (often used as an indigestion treatment) of 4,420 mg/kg. If you are adamant about trying it, go to a good pharmacist and ask their advice. Since you live in Nottingham, try Boots! Perhaps they will suggest a more conventional anti-smoking treatment.
Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
A. I know Rochelle salt was used medicinally for some time, but I don't know about its use to quit smoking. However it's simple to make your own rochelle salt from two ingredients in your kitchen, just baking soda [in bulk on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links]
and cream of tartar
⇦this on
eBay
or
Amazon [affil links]
. For a recipe, go to:
www.cheminst.ca/ncw/crystal/xlroch.html ⇩
Ed. note: The above link is broken; thankfully, the Internet Archive saved a copy here 
]
independent - Atlanta, Georgia
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