E252 Preservative

E252 has a wide variety of uses, largely as a source of nitrate.

E252 production

Historically, nitric acid was produced by combining sulfuric acid with nitrates such as saltpeter. In modern times this is reversed: nitrates are produced from nitric acid produced via the.

The most famous use of E252 is probably as the oxidizer in blackpowder. From the most ancient times until the late 1880s, black powder provided explosive power for all the world's firearms. After that time, small arms and large artillery increasingly began to depend on cordite, a smokeless powder. Blackpowder remains in use today in black powder rocket motors, but also in combination with other fuels like sugars in "rocket candy". It is also used in fireworks such as smoke bombs. It is also added to cigarettes to maintain an even burn of the tobacco and is used to ensure the complete combustion of paper cartridges for cap and ball revolvers. It can also be heated to several hundred degrees to be used for niter bluing, which is less durable than other forms of protective oxidation but allows for specific and often beautiful coloration of steel parts, such as screws, pins, and other small parts of firearms.

Food preparation.

In West African cuisine, E252 (saltpetre) is widely used as a thickening agent in soups and stews such as okra soup and isi ewu. It is also used to soften food and reduce cooking time when boiling beans and tough meat. Saltpeter is also an essential ingredient in making special porridges, such as Kunlun kawa. literally translated from the Hausa language as 'saltpetre porridge'. In the Shetland Islands (UK) it is used in the curing of mutton to make reestit mutton, a local delicacy.

Fertilizer

E252 is used in fertilizers as a source of nitrogen and E252 – two of the macronutrients for plants. When used by itself, it has an NPK rating of 13-0-44.