It seems like the vast majority of medication pills that I’ve seen are naturally white, unless they’re coated of course. Why aren’t any of them (or so few) other colors like green for example?
In: Chemistry
Most medications are made of organic compounds. Most organic compounds a white in color. This is because they don’t have very many multiple bonds and functional groups, meaning the frequencies of light they absorb tend to be outside our visual range.
For a molecule to absorb a photon the energy of that photon must match the difference between a filled orbital and an unfilled orbital in that molecule. In most simple organic compounds the unfilled orbitals are a long way away from the filled orbitals, meaning they would tend to absorb only high energy photons such as in ultraviolet light. We can’t see that though so they all just look sort of white or off-white.
Only a small proportion of what goes into a pill is the actual drug itself, the rest is made up of bulking agents and binders (to make it big enough to manufacture, package, dispense and easily swallow), the majority of which are white.
On top of that, a lot of small molecule drugs are white or straw coloured powders in the crystalline form, too.
I read the question wrong. I read,
“wouldn’t it be easier to identify pills if some more of the white ones were different colors and why don’t they do that?”
Some special or controlled medications are sometimes very bright/contrasting colors to help avoid mixing them up or taking them by mistake. Seems like a lot of OTC/low risk stuff is simply white though.
Latest Answers