Why you cry when chopping onions

Though it is a valued spice for preparing mouth watering delicacies, onions have a bad habit of making you cry first before you enjoy your meal. Today you will learn how they can make you cry even if you are a masculine man who has sworn seven times that you will never cry.


Onions produce a chemical irritant called propanethial-S-oxide. This stimulates the eye's lachrymal glands to produce tears. It occurs in the following steps:
1. Lachrymal factor synthase is released into air when we cut an onion.
2. The synthase enzyme converts the amino acids sulfoxides of the onion into sulfenic acid.
3. The unstable sulfenic acid rearranges itself into syn-propanethial-S-oxide .
4. Syn-propanethial-S- oxide is volatile hence rise up the air and comes into contact with our eyes.
5. lt reacts with water in our eyes to form H2SO4 hence causing a mild burning effect and this stimulates the eyes to produce tears to wipe the tears away.

PREVENTION/ CONTROL
1. Refrigrate the onions to slow down internal reactions.
2. Cut the onions inside water.
3. Wear googles when chopping onions.

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