How much do you know about the main ingredients of vape juice? The main components of e-liquid are: glycerin (safety identified by FDA), propylene glycol (edible, safe identified by FDA), nicotine (commonly known as nicotine), and edible essence. The following will introduce the functions of these four ingredients in detail:
1.Glycerin (VG)
VG for short, a common drug and food additive (usually used to make cakes, chocolates and other sweets), has no side effects on the human body, is colorless and odorless, very hygroscopic, but relatively viscous, so it will slightly increase the cleaning difficulty of the atomizer. Decrease the oil guide speed of the core (relatively easy to dry/stick). VG can be directly extracted from vegetable oil, coconut oil and palm oil, heated to high temperature, and then purified by distillation. Therefore, the USP food-grade vegetable glycerin used in regular e-liquid has 99.7% purity + 0.3% water.
2.Propylene Glycol (PG)
Also known as PG, it is used to dilute the viscosity of VG. Hygroscopic, slightly sweet, colorless and odorless, with a fluidity similar to that of water. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) describes PG as “generally safe for humans” (only refers to ingestion), and is a common drug and food additive. PG has good oil conductivity and produces “a small amount of smoke” and “similar to smoking”. Throat hit”.
PG has been confirmed by FDA to be classified as a safe additive (only refers to ingestion), although it is also one of the benchmark materials for antifreeze, and is often used in the field of antifreeze and food and beverages with special requirements. Although PG is generally safe, there are still a small number of people who have mild allergic symptoms, such as throat discomfort, phlegm, dizziness, etc. These side effects are relatively short-lived and mild.
But the FDA’s statement is actually “Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS)”, this definition refers to “ingestion”, other methods such as inhalation, injection, or topical use are not within the scope of GRAS! Therefore, the safety of the aerosol produced by e-cigarettes after atomizing the e-liquid is not guaranteed by the FDA.
3.Nicotine
Although not all e-cigarettes contain nicotine, the nicotine content in e-cigarettes is one of its essential components. Nicotine is divided into nicotine extracted from tobacco and nightshade plants and synthetic nicotine.
The main role of nicotine is to relieve smoking addiction and produce a throat hit. And it has the effect of improving the taste of e-liquid to a certain extent. Some people talk about “nicotine discoloration” and think that nicotine is highly toxic. In fact, the concentration of nicotine solution contained in e-liquid is not high. Nicotine, which has been closely related to “death” and “cancer” for nearly a hundred years, has now received a lot of new attention. However, the main harm of nicotine is to make people addicted to smoking. The tar and carbon monoxide of real cigarettes are carcinogens. The burning of carbon monoxide and cigarettes will produce more than 4,000 kinds of toxic, harmful and even radioactive substances. Nicotine can only cause cancer if it acts directly on the human body in the case of extremely high purity (direct effect means blood injection).
4.Edible flavors
The role of flavor in e-liquid is very important. The flavor of e-liquid is determined by flavor. The combination of flavors and the proportion of different flavors determines the flavor of e-liquid. The general flavor of e-liquid with unique flavor is also very complex.
Vape juice has opened up a wider creative space for the traditional industry of perfumers, but after the release of the new national standard for electronic cigarettes, fruit-flavored electronic cigarettes are limited, which limits the application of flavors and fragrances in vape juice.
