Antimicrobial Silver

Watched a program on the history channel tonight, apparently silver has antimicrobial properties. Babies fed with silver spoons were healthier than babies fed with non silver spoons. I also remember reading that years ago some people used to put "silver dollars" in milk jugs to prevent spoilage.

Anyone know why silver is antimicrobial? What about gold?

 

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Thanks Harry for the chance to use one of my favorite pedantic terms:

Oligodynamic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligodynamic_effect

Jim

 

I can't specifically answer your question, but part of it is that silver is ever so minutely soluble. So the silver ions are able to attack the microbes. To the best of my knowledge, gold is about as insoluble as they come.

 

Shows what I know about gold!

 

And doesn't Copper have antimicrobial properties as well? A Nurse told me once that the reason why all the door knobs and door handles in the Hospital were Copper because Copper is a known germ killer.

 

Not sure of the spelling but I saw a product called "collodial silver" with antibiotic properties, in the nutrition store. Wonder if it operates under the same theory. I also remember maybe reading that too much silver could actually make your skin turn "blue".

 

I have known about the antimicrobial effects of silver for years. Recently, I encoutered one article that stated there was no such effect, but as for now, I still believe.

I think it would be an excellent idea to have silver mixed in with paint, for example, to cover the walls in hospitals. I think this could go a long way toward combating hospital-acquired bacterial infections.

I have already seen clothing that claims to have silver as part of the design to help combat microbes, and thus, odor.

 

Hey, what the heck, gonna go out and ingest a whole bunch o' heavy metals......

 

Apparently I need a Brass or Copper doorknob.

 

yes, there's a famous case of a man who used to ingest a certain remedy that had silver in it, and he turned blue. I believe what he ingested could be purchased at any store at the time, and then they stopped carrying it.

 

Oh not this again!

 

silver's dissolution in water at room temperature is minuscule. It is reactive to create silver salts. This discussion on silver spoons, however, is hyperbola.

Silver is, however, a terrific element when combined with organic compounds, especially sulfadiazines, and piperzines, to create antibiotics, all of which has been outdated by the far safer modern disinfectants (spam40's) and antibiotics (penacilamines, cephasporins, Marcrolides, Sulfamamides, etc.

FWIW - Brass is actually a better bacteriostatic agent: hence the door knobs in old hospitals.


Ruben

 

And the difference between "ever so minutely" and "minuscule" is?

 

10 -8 parts per litter or so. I don't think you can demonstrate the positive existence of a single atom in a liter of water. The point I was making though is its not so much the soluency of the silver, which could never ionize in its natural form, as much as that it reacts with contaminants in the water.


Ruben

 

Silver never even dissolves or reacts in Ocean Salt water - see the ship wreck finds.

Ruben

 

What about gold in shipwreck finds?

 

apparently the same... Gold doesn't even seem to crust.

 

Copper is an invertebrate killer. For example, it's well known in the reef aquarium hobby that if you have a reef with sick fish and you try to administer a copper treatment to rid them of their parasites, you'll also wipe out every coral, anemone, crab, worm, etc... that exists in the tank. Which in many cases can be thousands of dollars gone in a flash. There are trace amounts of copper in sea water but much more than that in an aquarium is lethal.

Germs are invertebrates as well so I guess the door knob theory would make sense. That's actually pretty neat.

I've also heard of somebody shaving an old penny and feeding the copper to their dog to rid it of heartworms. Probably heard that one here.

 

Don't they use copper sulfate for weed control in ponds?

 

Yes. That's another form of copper and it can be used as an algacide as well.