Citric acid is a wonderful natural cleaner that does not emit harmful smoke like our normal household cleaners do. Especially pregnant women and children should be very careful about toxic fumes and it is very good to substitute regular cleaners with natural cleaners like citric acid. Citric acid also is one of the most commonly used ingredient in food industry. But what is citric acid?
Citric acid is a naturally occurring acid found plenty in citrus fruits. It is sold as a white crystalline powder and it is also called as sour salt | lemon salt in English. Citric acid is called nimbu ka sat | nimbu ka phool | tatri in Hindi. Citric acid is also an amazing preservative that has been used for centuries to preserve food, chances are that almost half the bottled products we use at home will contain citric acid.
Bath Fun
Homemade bath bombs are fun to make at home. Children will have lot of fun in their bath with it. When you are giving bath for young children at home, just add one of these in the bath water. The fizz it produces will absolutely delight them. The ingredients in this bath bombs are very mild on the skin.
To make this at home, take citric acid, baking soda and mix them together. Add the grated zest of a lemon, yellow food coloring and few drops of citrus essential oil and mix them well. Now to bind all of it together, add rubbing alcohol/surgical spirit. Add the surgical spirit little by little till you can shape the mixture. Dry and your bath bombs are ready.
Face Mask
Citric acid is widely used in skin care and many of our creams especially anti aging creams contains citric acid. Citric acid reduces fine lines, is very good in preventing wrinkles, slough of dead cells, prevent acne and treats uneven skin tone! Professional citric acid treatments are expensive and you can easily make the treatments at home for the fraction of that cost. For an anti aging face mask using citric acid, take citric acid in a mortar and pestle and crush the citric acid crystals to a fine powder. Add enough yogurt, little bit of honey and 1 vitamin e capsule to form a spreadable mask and apply on the skin.
Sugar Crystallizing
Adding citric acid prevents sugar crystallizing and helps to improve the flavor and the color of the jam that we are making. Try to add it at the end and add it according to sourness of the fruit you are making the jam with. You can also add it to sugar syrups, sherbets, etc.
Mouth Rinse
Citric acid mouth rinse is very refreshing and enhances the taste of the food. A study was done on the effect of citric acid rinse on people with muscular dystrophy. The patients experienced weight loss due to taste disturbance and decrease in the amount of saliva produced. When they were made to gargle with citric acid rinse, though the intake did not increase, the amount of saliva increased and they also enjoyed the taste of food better.