Top 10 Most Expensive Liquids In The World
A bottle of water in an airport? A pint of beer in a central London bar? A barrel of crude oil? Believe it or not, none of these liquids even scrape our top 10 most expensive liquids in the world. Due to their scarcity, how difficult they are to create, and their usefulness to the human race, some liquids can cost up to millions of dollars when you examine them at a cost per gallon. Let's dive into some expensive liquids now.
10-Scintillation Cocktail
I'm not talking about the brightly colored liquids Tom Cruise concocted in Cocktails and Dreams. This is far more serious stuff. And one of our most expensive liquids, with a value of $210 per gallon. Scintillation cocktail is a liquid used to help measure the activity of radioactive material. Radioactive material is dissolved or suspended in the scintillation cocktail, and placed on a liquid scintillation counting machine. Which allows you to see the alpha and beta particles being emitted. It was used to analyze soil samples after nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima to see if it was safe to come back. The cocktail is made from a large number of different chemicals. And each batch is checked individually against a huge number of large-worded criteria, including chemiluminescence, photoluminescence, and counting efficiency. That's why it's so expensive.
9-Nail Polish
You probably don't think nail polish is that expensive. But that's because you only buy in tiny quantities. If you wanted to buy a gallon of Cover Girl nail polish, it would cost you $900. Most nail polishes are made from nitrocellulose, mixed with a solvent, like butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. That's why it has that distinctive smell. The high-end nail polish brands contain chemicals that add texture and color to the polish. Plasticizers hold the pigments together, and there are polymers that make the polish last longer on the nail. You may even find sparkles in there. According to a survey in 2012, more than two million gallons of nail polish were sold in the U.S. that year. Also, more than 33% of women in the U.S. own more than 25 bottles of nail polish. That's more than one for every finger and toe on their body.
8-Human Blood
The average human has one and a half gallons of blood running through their veins and arteries. Millions of people donate their blood every day, so why is human blood on our list of expensive liquids? Well, it's because of what they do to your blood after you've donated it. When you donate your blood at the blood bank, you give what's called whole blood. However, these days, most blood banks prefer to split whole blood into two separate parts. These are usually red blood cells and plasma. It costs a lot of money to process the whole blood and separate it, so that is why blood is so valuable. About $1500 per gallon. In addition, blood is valuable because so much of it is used to keep people alive in emergency situations. A single car accident emergency could require more than 12 gallons of blood. That's why donors are always needed and warmly welcomed at blood banks.
7-Printer Ink and Liquid Paper
If you own a printer, you probably realize this every time you have to replace the ink cartridge. I know I do. But this black substance we use every day is one of the most expensive liquids in the world. It's worth $2700 per gallon. The ink is actually how printer companies make their money. They sell you their printer at a loss knowing that they'll make this loss back, and more, as you buy replacement ink throughout the life of the printer. That's why you can only buy ink branded by your printer maker. Obviously, black is the most used color. Even when you're printing colors, part of it is mixed with black ink. It's made primarily of carbon, with a cocktail of other ingredients such as lubricants that stop it getting stuck in the printer. And chemicals that make it dry quickly. The printer companies plead that manufacturing ink cartridges is a long and complicated process, which justifies the price. Do you believe them? Or are they just on a massive money spinner? Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the opposite of printer ink is correction fluid. Known in the U.S. as liquid paper. It was invented in 1956 by a typist called Bette Nesmith Graham, in her kitchen. In 1979, she sold the Liquid Paper brand to Gillette for nearly $50 million. It's made of a variety of chemicals, but the white pigment is titanium dioxide. At $200 per gallon, it doesn't come close to the price of printer ink but still makes our list.
6-Mercury
You probably remember this from chemistry at school. Mercury is the only metal that is a liquid when at room temperature. While it's poisonous to humans, it can affect the kidneys, liver, and nervous system if humans come into contact with it, it's very useful in many other ways. We use it to make thermometers and barometers. We use it to make batteries and to produce chemicals such as chlorine. Mercury is used to make electric switches and light bulbs. And when combined with other chemicals, it can be used in medical treatments. Also, it's used to extract gold from rocks. So it's prized in the jewelry industry. Mercury is found in the earth's crust, and extracted by heating up ground mercury ore to 580 degrees Celsius. As you can imagine, that's a pretty expensive process. Which is why mercury is worth around $3400 per gallon.
5-Insulin
Staying with the medical world, we move on to insulin. Worth $9400 a gallon. Insulin is a hormone, made in the pancreas, that helps your blood absorb glucose from your food, and convert it into energy. It also regulates the body's blood sugar level and helps the body break down fat. Useful stuff. Unfortunately, if you're a diabetic, your body isn't producing as much insulin as it needs. So you have to get it from elsewhere. Around 29 million people in the U.S.A. alone have diabetes. So that's a lot of insulin that they need to find. The reason why it's so expensive is mainly down to the fact that the market is captive. You need to buy insulin, or you die. Also, there are only three authorized manufacturers of insulin in the U.S., with regulations limiting the flow of generic, unbranded insulin into the market. Over the last 10 years, the price of insulin has tripled. Who knows what it will cost in 10 years time.
4-Horseshoe Crab Blood
Spare a thought for the horseshoe crab. He's happily swimming around the shallow ocean bed, as he always does. When it's time to mate, he pops on to the shore. Suddenly, he's kidnapped, and his blood is harvested, along with the blood of his friends, before he is set free again. What must be going through his mind? It's not his fault he has a special type of blood. It doesn't contain hemoglobin. Instead, oxygen is contained in hemocyanin. It contains traces of copper, which means it's blue rather than red. The horseshoe crab's blood contains amoebocytes, which can be used in the medical industry for detecting toxic bacteria. It can be used to make vaccines. It's also worth $60,000 per gallon, because of the lengths you need to go to get any of it!. Yes, it must be tough being a horseshoe crab.
3-GHB & LSD
These are the two most expensive liquids you probably don't want to come into contact with. 4-hydroxybutanoic acid, or GHB, is manufactured as a treatment for narcolepsy, and an anesthetic. However, when it's mixed with alcohol, it can seriously affect your decision-making ability, and your memory. As a result, GHB became known as the date rape drug. Used by criminals to spike peoples' drinks. As it's clear, it's impossible to detect. GHB costs around $2600 per gallon. Elsewhere, lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, came to prominence in the 1960s when it was popularized by the Beatles. It's a drug known to cause hallucinations and affect your awareness. As it's manufactured illegally from crystals, it's extremely expensive. Plus, a single dose of LSD is between 40 and 500 micrograms, around 1/10th the size of a grain of sand, dissolved into paper. If you were to buy a gallon of it, and I don't recommend you do, it would cost around $123,000.
2-Perfumes
If you've ever passed time in the Sky Store at the airport, you'll know that perfume can be pretty expensive stuff. The first and probably the most famous designer perfume was Chanel No. 5, concocted by French designer Coco Chanel and chemist Ernest Beaux. Chanel No. 5 was launched in 1922, and has been a best-seller ever since. It's made from very rare flower petals, and essence of root. In a bottle of Chanel No. 5, you'll find bergamot, rose, heart of jasmine, and much more. These ingredients are difficult to find which is what makes No. 5 so expensive, at $26,000 per gallon. It is the most expensive perfume that it readily available. Modern perfumes are easier to manufacture, using more readily available ingredients. For example, Calvin Klein's Eternity for Men comes in at a modest $3840 per gallon. Chanel No. 5 is not the world's most expensive perfume, though. That honor belongs to Clive Christian No. 1, whose woody and oriental fragrance costs around $344,000 per gallon.
1-Venom
Most people would say being bitten by a venomous creature isn't much fun, and they'd be right. However, certain types of venom are incredibly useful and absurdly valuable as a result. Take the King Cobra, for example. Its venom is one of the deadliest liquids on earth. One simple bite results in afflictions such as vertigo and blurred vision, quickly followed by paralysis, and falling into a coma. The King Cobra's venom can kill a fully grown elephant. It uses its venom to kill other snakes and eat them, yet you can also use King Cobra venom to make medicines such as those to break down blood clots, treat Parkinson's Disease, and breast cancer. It can also be used to make anti-wrinkle cream and an antidote to snake venom. This is because it contains a protein called ohanin, which is an extremely powerful painkiller, 20 times more powerful than morphine. A gallon of King Cobra venom costs around $153,000. That's nothing compared to scorpion venom, however. Venom is only a scorpion's backup plan in the wild. They usually use their strong, sharp claws to kill their prey, only resorting to using their deadly venom if they really need it. Like the King Cobra venom, scorpion venom is extremely useful in the medical arena. Its properties are amazing for treating autoimmune disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and even some cancers. Before I tell you the price, imagine how difficult it must be to harvest scorpion venom. I mean, would you like to be the one that tells a scorpion you want his venom? It's a terrifically hard job, and that's why the price tag for a gallon of scorpion venom is $39 million.
Can you think of any more liquids that should be on our list? Let me know in the comments section down below, Thank you so much.
