Important: Safety Warning
This page recommends preserving food with chemicals such as salicylic acid, borax, or formaldehyde. These substances are toxic when eaten, and their use in food is now prohibited.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Salicylic Acid
in chemistry, C7H6O3=(C7H4O)" O2, spinoylic acid, ortho-hydroxy-benzoic acid, a dibasic acid existing ready formed in the flowers of Spiræa ulmaria, and obtained synthetiheating sodium phenol to 180° in a stream of carbon anhydride. Salicylic acid is employed as an antiseptic and antiputrefactive agent. One grain added to each One gra grain added to each ounce of a fermenting liquid will at once arrest fermentation. It has the power of preserving for a time milk, fresh meat, albumin, etc., and is used in the surgery, either alone or mixed with starch, to destroy the fetid odor of cancerous surfaces or uncleansed wounds.