[Liahona]

I am sure this may be a question for Doug but open to anyone who can help. I cleaned a carpet last week and a redish orange stain has wicked up. I have found out what it is......Rifadin or Rifampicin......... Any suggestions at to how to remedy. It is a very expensive carpet so it does need to be fixed. At worse as it is a tufted carpet I can always re-tuft it but if it can be cleaned that would be much easier and less time consuming. The expense of doing it isnt a problem for the customer as like I have said it is worth spending the money on it as it is quite expensive. Best, Dave.

[woodman]

Medicine stains (unless herbal) are usually classed as synthetic so a reducing agent would be required.

As you have already cleaned it and the stain is still visible you might want to try the heat transfer method using something like Red RX.

[Liahona]

Cheers, kind of what I thought. The carpet showed no signs of the stain untill I added the moisture so shall I reduce it first or do you think I should just go for heat transfer?..... Where is my best place to shop for chemicals. I at present still shop in the US but would like a good supplier over here. I do know of Alltec but no one else, best, Dave.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Dave,

I haven't had that much success with red stains , as Woodman says try heat transfer.

One thought is that it may not be the moisture but the alkalinity which has caused the stain to go red , try dabbing it with neat acid rinse to see if you can chamge it back  again.

Cheers

Doug

[Liahona]

Ok, thanks in advance and I will let you know how I get on.

[Graeme@Access]

Hi,

I have done a bit of research into your problem and maybe can help.

Rifampicin is a is a pretty specialised antibiotic that is used to treat menegitis and i would worry as to why it was in the house in the first place.  There is a possibility that you should wear extra ppe when dealing with this client as its likely that they have something rather nasty if they need to take this medcine.

here is some data on the structure : http://www.bmb.leeds.ac.uk/mbiology/ug/ugteach/icu8/antibiotics/antimycobacterials.html

Having worked in big pharma, i can tell you that most drugs are not coloured but its the dyes that they add to the drugs to make them look better.  Eg, I worked a Pfizer and they spent weeks (8 man team of some of the most intelligent people to grace this earth) removing a coloured impurity from a slimming pill.  The best bit about it is, the pills were for dogs.... yeah they care about the colour of their tablets... o yeah and in addition to this... they were going to sugar coat the drug anyways. hahaha, idiots.

Alas, looking at the structure of the drug it may be
soluble in acid: try vinegar (piperidine moiety in the bottom right as drawn)
soluble in alkali: try sodium bicarbonate (numerous phenolic residues througout the structure)
Soluble in solvent: try dry cleaning solvent (tetrachloro ethylene)
                         try acetone (nail varnish remover)

However,  Looking at the structure i would be a little concearned as to what it might do in the presence of strong alkali or acid.  It is set up to do sigmatropic rearrangements in the top right ring as drawn and it contains an acetal which will open in the presence of acid.

Regardless of my ramblings, it should be soluble in solvent or mild alkali.

Let me know how you get on,

Hope this helps

Graeme Thurston
Access Cleaning Solutions

[Liahona]

Thanks for that info too. PPE isnt a concern although thankyou for it as I knew what I was getting into in the first place. My one question, the customer had advised m that the medicine was for T.B. would T.B. and Menegitis come under the same treatment. Not that I care just wanted to know, thanks again for all the help and I will let you know how it comes out, next week. Best, Dave.

[Graeme@Access]

Hi,

Yeah its used for TB also, basically its a second generation anti bio.  The first gen are all like penecillins and work by stopping bacerial wall synthesis.

The second gen are more complicated in mechanism and less widely used => less likely to encounter resistance.  Basically they interfere with the RNA to DNA synthesis pathway inside the nucleus of cells.  Im not really good at biology(or spelling) so explaining how they work isnt my strong point, but im sure you get the gist.

Graeme
Access Cleaning Solutions

[BRSL]

The second gen are more complicated in mechanism and less widely used => less likely to encounter resistance.  Basically they interfere with the RNA to DNA synthesis pathway inside the nucleus of cells.

Im not really good at biology(or spelling)

 

Thats funny

[Liahona]

I ended up trying a few different ideas chemical wise but ended up re-tufting it. That way I ended up with as near a perfect result as I could have. Thanks for the help anyway as I am sure I will use it on another job. Best, Dave.