How Do You Test Home Water Ph Using Cabbage?
Ever have the need to test pH of your home water, aquarium, pool, etc… But you don’t want to spend a load of cash on the fancy testing chemicals? Well, there is a way to do it for about a dollar. Believe it or not, red cabbage is a natural source of a type of Anthocyanin called Flavin that changes colors in different concentration of hydrogen ions. What does this mean? It is a natural pH indicator! Anthocyanins are natrually occuring anti-oxidants that are found in grapes, apples, and almost every fruit. However, a specific one called Flavin found in red cabbage is what we are interested in. The first step is to chop up your head of read cabbage into tiny pieces about a centimeter (1/4″) in size. Be sure to use a fresh head of red cabbage from the market, not a can or jar of pickled cabbage. Once you have the cabbage chopped up, dump the entire pile into a clean pot on the stove, and pour in enough distilled water to submerge about 80% of the pile. Be sure to use distilled water, and
