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technically speaking

Cleaning Up Our Evening Tipple

by Dave Trecker

hose of us of a certain age look forward to the small If one could slow the first metabolic step without affecting
pleasure of a drink before or with the evening meal, the second, that might reduce the size of the hangover without
Ta tipple as the English would call it. lessening the feel-good effect of drinking.
We know it’s not especially good for us, but in these Medicinal chemist Tony Czarnik did just that. As described in
troublesome times of pandemics and collapsing economies, it’s c&en Chemical & Engineering News, Czarnik found that replacing
way down our list of concerns. We have more important things to hydrogen with deuterium on the methylene group in ethanol,
worry about. slowed acetaldehyde formation but not its conversion to acetates.
The same applies to hangovers, those painful by-products of Real-life clinical trials verified the isotope effect. Consumption
imbibing that we accept as part of everyday life. of drinks containing ethanol-D led to greatly reduced hangovers.
So when we hear about people taking steps to clean up our To capitalize on this, Czarnik’s company, Deuteria Beverages,
booze, we’re naturally suspicious. is seeking regulatory approval for deuterium-enriched ethanol, the
But it’s starting to happen. first step toward commercial use. As you might expect, several large
The first step is to make our whiskey green. Not green in beer and spirits companies are waiting in the wings
color, of course, but made with renewable energy. Booze, after all, Another approach for muting the bad effects of ethanol is to
shouldn’t contribute to climate change. eliminate ethanol altogether.
Diageo PLC believes that. The London-based distiller has Neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt of Imperial College
opened the first carbon-neutral distillery in the United States, its London described to c&en his efforts to duplicate ethanol’s affinity
new Kentucky plant running entirely on solar and wind power. to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the
The plant will turn out ten million gallons of whiskey a year while interaction that triggers the euphoria associated with booze.
cutting some 117,000 metric tons of carbon emissions. Nutt and coworkers found that a food-grade botanical extract
Perry Jones, Diageo’s president of North American supply, says did the trick. Readily approved, the alcohol-free beverage called
the company plans to convert six other of its United States and Sentia is being sold in the United Kingdom and a few other places
Canadian distilleries to renewable energy in the near future. in Europe.
While acknowledging the company’s righteous aims, Jones is Buoyed by this success, Nutt’s company, GABA Labs, is
hedging his bet. The Kentucky site, he said, will be able to switch looking for synthetic chemicals to more precisely target sites on
to natural gas if there isn’t enough wind or sun to keep things the critical receptors. Three promising candidates have already been
going. identified. Favorable clinical trials, due to start next year, could
Other things are happening to whiskey as well. One of the open the way for wider use of the whiskey substitutes.
most striking is an attempt to get rid of hangovers. That’s right. Nutt was quoted as saying, “We want people to enjoy the same
Keep drinking but eliminate the aftereffect. social experiences they get from alcohol but with significantly
Here’s some background. When the body metabolizes ethanol, fewer risks.”
the first step is conversion to acetaldehyde, a bad actor that over We can all drink to that!
time can cause inflammation, cirrhosis of the liver and esophageal
cancer. Shorter term, as it accumulates after a bout of drinking,
it triggers the dreaded hangover. The second metabolic step is Dr. Trecker, a chemist, is a retired Pfizer executive. He serves on a
conversion of acetaldehyde to acetates, safe metabolites that cause number of local boards.
few problems.

Life in Naples | December 2021 85