Nitroglycerin

Nitroglycerin (NG), also known as nitroglycerine, trinitroglycerin, trinitroglycerine, or nitro, is more correctly known as glyceryl trinitrate or more formally: 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane. It is a heavy, colorless, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by treating glycerol with nitric acid under conditions appropriate to the formation of the nitric acid ester. Chemically, the substance is an organic nitrate compound rather than a nitro compound, but the traditional name is often retained. Since the 1860s, nitroglycerin has been used as an active ingredient in the manufacture of explosives, mostly dynamite, and as such it is employed in the construction, demolition, and mining industries. Similarly, since the 1880s, it has been used by the military as an active ingredient, and a gelatinizer for nitrocellulose, in some solid propellants, such as Cordite and Ballistite.

Nitroglycerin is also a major component in double-based smokeless gunpowders used by reloaders. Combined with nitrocellulose, there are hundreds of (powder) combinations used by rifle, pistol, and shotgun reloaders.

Nitroglycerin is also used medically as a vasodilator to treat heart conditions, such as angina and chronic heart failure. Nitroglycerin has been one of the oldest and most useful drugs for treating and preventing attacks of angina pectoris. After more than 130 years of such use, in 2002 it was discovered that these effects arise because nitroglycerin is converted to nitric oxide in the body by mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase, and nitric oxide is a natural vasodilator in the body. Nitroglycerin comes in forms of tablets, sprays or patches. It has been suggested for other uses also, such as an adjunct therapy in prostate cancer.