On my first Saturday show with Rod Tiley, a caller asked about getting bloodstains off a bedspread.
Blood is a bit tricky, as it’s a deep red colour and sticks to most fabrics strongly. The red colour is the haemoglobin molecule,
a complex organometallic molecule which has iron at the centre.
To break it up, and remove the colour, we need to break up this structure. There are two potential ways to do this:
1. Treat it with a chemical that has a greater affinity for the iron than the porphyrin ring of the heme molecule. A good choice here is citric acid. My daughter cut her finger a while back and got some blood stains on our carpet. I rubbed in some citric acid that I had and removed it immediately.
Unfortunately, citric acid is not available over the counter for some reason, so you have to look elsewhere. The best source that I know of is limes, which contain about 4-5% citric acid. Squeeze some lime juice onto the blood stain ane see how it goes – just leave it and see if it does anything. It may not work that well as it’s not very concentrated.
2. Use an enzyme based cleaner, like Biozet, or Preen. Wet the fabric, add a bit of detergent/prewash, and work it in gently. You don’t have to rub hard – let the chemical do the work. Perhaps leave it for a few minutes to allow the enzyme to do its stuff, then swab it off with a dry rag. Repeat as many times as you need to in order to remove it. It may be a slow process, but it should work eventually
Is that so? Thanks for the tip.
Hello Dr Chemical citric acid is readily avaiable from most supermarkets. A company called McKenzie’s make it.