After extensive research (at least half an hour) Ihave come up with a potential pathways for urine to act as an oxidizing agent.
Urea will hydrolyze to form Ammonia and carbon dioxide. No oxidizing agents there.
Since the reaction does not take place until the substance is outside the body it is reasonable to assume that the pathway must involve an oxidizing agent in the air. How about oxygen?
Ammonia can react with oxygen to form nitric oxide and from there nitric acid. Both of those are strong oxidizing agents. They will however be in dilute solution since ammonia will usually react with oxygen to form nitrogen gas and water.
I would be interested in finding what the actual chemical name for this urochrome substance that has been mentioned. The name implies that it contains chrome. If the substance is yellow, then it must be hexavalent chrome. Hexavalent chrome is a strong oxidizing agent. Unfortunatly, it is also very carcinogenic, so I think it is unlikely to be in the system in very large quantities.
Since chrome is such a strong oxidizing agent, there is an easy way to (ahem)test for the presence of chrome. Simply ummm, place the substance in a ummm glass. Add ethanol (Everclear to prevent any unwanted impurities) and let the mixture sit on the counter next to the lemonade overnight. If there is hexavalent chrome in the solution, it should turn greenish (trivalent chrome).
That wasn’t a WB animator, that was Jim Henson. It took him a couple weeks of intensive monitoring to get the dosage just right, which just goes to show you it’s not easy peeing green.
I’ll have to have a sit and think about some of the chemistry involved, but I rather suspect ‘urochrome’ was a generic word used to describe whatever it is that colours urine rather than a name descriptive of the actual structure of the colourant. In this sense I think ‘chrome’ refers to the greek or latin or whatever (chroma, Gr.?) meaning simply colour. I hope I never find myself passing chromium (VI).
No, it’s clear because it’s been diluted by a greater amount of fluid. Clear urine is healthy urine (generalization). When you don’t drink enough (I’m using water as the example here), your body starts to retain it (kind of like going into “economy mode”); what you do excrete at that point is more concentrated with waste acids and whatever else makes up urine. The more you take in, the more your body excretes, therefore allowing the waste to be diluted in a greater amount of fluid.
