Unique Daily Question - Why Do Onions Make You Cry?

Cuts an Onion

Do you love cooking? Onion is health and give more tasted and good smell to your food isn't. Mostly we are cry while cut an onios, experienced the burning and tearing you get from the vapors. Do you know why?

When you cut an onion, you break cells, releasing their contents called Amino acid sulfoxides form sulfenic acids. Enzymes that were kept separate now are free to mix with the sulfenic acids to produce propanethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward toward your eyes. This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid burn and stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash away the irritant.

Cooking the onion will inactivates the enzymes, the smell of cooked onions may be strong but doesn't burn your eyes. Aside wearing safety goggles or running a fan, you can keep from crying by refrigerating onions before cutting it. Onios enzymes will have slows reactions and changes the chemistry inside the onion. Another option is cutting the onion under water. The sulfur-containing compounds also leave a characteristic odor on your fingers. You may be able to remove or reduce some of the smell by wiping your fingers on a stainless steel odor eater.