If you haven’t vaped a yogurt flavor from your local eLiquid manufacture, you may just want to take a second look at the formulation of these products.
Butyric acid is the common ingredient in these yogurt flavor, the major constituent imparting the rancid and creamy flavor of cultured yogurt. Cool chemistry to think about! And to-date, no journalistic evidence exists proving the butyric acid chemical to be harmful by inhalation by itself.
“BY ITSELF” being the operative words here. Recent rummaging around the interwebs and speaking with an old UCSD professor of mine has yielded an astounding piece of literature –
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18940962
TL;dr (science stuffs) = Butyric Acid is a modulator of diacetyl reductase, the emzyme that breaks down diketones of many forms (think diacetyl, acetion, acetyl propionyl, etc…). If butyric acid is present in solution, it will downregulate the activity of diacetyl reductase, effectively allowing the diketones to remain in your body for longer periods of time, leaving them to their naughty business for longer periods of time (not good).
Conclusion – Butyric acid in eLiquids should be safe for inhalation based upon the current literature, however its presence should be accompanied by NO DIKETONE CONTENT WHATSOEVER. This presents an increased health-risk if they are indeed present in solution.
As a result, we are adding butyric acid as our newest analyte-of-interest to the Nude Nicotine library of compounds to detect for. Our qualifications will be a requirement of non-detectable results for all 3 major diketones if the presence of butyric acid is positive.
Vape safe friends! Best regards,
Jake
CEO, lead chemist – Nude Nicotine