title: Tanjiro Kamado

text: Writing for Comic Book Resources, Sage Ashford praised the protagonists, whom he called "the most likable male and female leads of the decade". "Gadget Tsūshin" listed both the breathing techniques suffix and "Ah! The era, the era changed again!" in their 2019 anime buzzwords list. Manga.Tokyo felt Tanjiro's characterization to be unique within the series the writer has seen, citing the scenes where the character cheers himself up and tries to work for his responsibilities. Tanjiro's skills in regards to his breathing was noted to be one of most surprising events in the anime series by Latin America's IGN. In late 2019, IGN wondered about the possibilities of Tanjiro dying in the manga at the hands of Muzan due to the multiple wounds he suffered in his match against the demon.


title: Tanjiro Kamado

text: Tanjiro's character has been very popular. He was ranked in 1st place as of the first "Demon Slayer" character popularity poll with 6,742 votes. AnimeAnime did a poll in 2020 involving Tanjiro's character. Readers voted his first usage of the fire technique as the best action performed by the character. Meanwhile, his bond with Nezuko was also voted as having one of the best quotes in the manga. In February 2020 at Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Tanjiro won the "Best Boy" category and the fight of Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko against Rui won the "Best Fight Scene" category. This scene was heavily commented by the critics with IGN regarding it as one of the best television episode series of all times based on the visual and execution. "Manga.Tokyo" enjoyed the build up to this scene as Nezuko manages to assist Tanjiro. Due to the emotional delivery of this scene, the writer look forward to more interactions between the two siblings.


title: Tanjiro Kamado

text: He won the "Newtype" "best male character" award for his role in the series, along with Natsuki Hanae also being awarded for his performance as Tanjiro. According to Comic Book Resources, Tanjiro's hanafuda earring are also highly popular within the fanbase. The same site also made a list of the 10 best quotes the character says in the anime series. He also appeared in TV Time article featuring the best characters from 2019. In a Benesse survey, Tanjiro was voted as the most trusted character by Shinkenzemi Elementary School Course.


title: Tanjiro Kamado

text: In November 2020, Hong Kong police posted an image of its anti-fraud mascot resembling Tanjiro. Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow expressed fears for its similarities with the character, stating that while it is not a copyright violation, he was disappointed by the lack of creative rights. A card illustrated by "Gin Tama" author Hideaki Sorachi, depicting Tanjiro and the Hashira, was given to the theatergoers in the film's first week of screenings of "Gintama The Final Film". In October 2021, Shueisha failed its appeal to trademark the clothing patterns for the following "Demon Slayer" including Tanjiro among others.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is a chemical element with the symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is the third-lightest element in group 17 of the periodic table (halogens) and is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a similarly coloured vapour. Its properties are intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine. Isolated independently by two chemists, Carl Jacob Löwig (in 1825) and Antoine Jérôme Balard (in 1826), its name was derived from the Ancient Greek (bromos) meaning "stench", referring to its sharp and pungent smell.


title: Bromine

text: Elemental bromine is very reactive and thus does not occur as a native element in nature but it occurs in colourless soluble crystalline mineral halide salts, analogous to table salt. In fact, bromine and all the halogens are so reactive that they form bonds in pairs—never in single atoms. While it is rather rare in the Earth's crust, the high solubility of the bromide ion (Br) has caused its accumulation in the oceans. Commercially the element is easily extracted from brine evaporation ponds, mostly in the United States and Israel. The mass of bromine in the oceans is about one three-hundredth that of chlorine.


title: Bromine

text: At standard conditions for temperature and pressure it is a liquid; the only other element that is liquid under these conditions is mercury. At high temperatures, organobromine compounds readily dissociate to yield free bromine atoms, a process that stops free radical chemical chain reactions. This effect makes organobromine compounds useful as fire retardants, and more than half the bromine produced worldwide each year is put to this purpose. The same property causes ultraviolet sunlight to dissociate volatile organobromine compounds in the atmosphere to yield free bromine atoms, causing ozone depletion. As a result, many organobromine compounds—such as the pesticide methyl bromide—are no longer used. Bromine compounds are still used in well drilling fluids, in photographic film, and as an intermediate in the manufacture of organic chemicals.


title: Bromine

text: Large amounts of bromide salts are toxic from the action of soluble bromide ions, causing bromism. However, a clear biological role for bromide ions and hypobromous acid has recently been elucidated, and it now appears that bromine is an essential trace element in humans. The role of biological organobromine compounds in sea life such as algae has been known for much longer. As a pharmaceutical, the simple bromide ion (Br) has inhibitory effects on the central nervous system, and bromide salts were once a major medical sedative, before replacement by shorter-acting drugs. They retain niche uses as antiepileptics.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine was discovered independently by two chemists, Carl Jacob Löwig and Antoine Balard, in 1825 and 1826, respectively.


title: Bromine

text: Löwig isolated bromine from a mineral water spring from his hometown Bad Kreuznach in 1825. Löwig used a solution of the mineral salt saturated with chlorine and extracted the bromine with diethyl ether. After evaporation of the ether, a brown liquid remained. With this liquid as a sample of his work he applied for a position in the laboratory of Leopold Gmelin in Heidelberg. The publication of the results was delayed and Balard published his results first.


title: Bromine

text: Balard found bromine chemicals in the ash of seaweed from the salt marshes of Montpellier. The seaweed was used to produce iodine, but also contained bromine. Balard distilled the bromine from a solution of seaweed ash saturated with chlorine. The properties of the resulting substance were intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine; thus he tried to prove that the substance was iodine monochloride (ICl), but after failing to do so he was sure that he had found a new element and named it muride, derived from the Latin word ("brine").


title: Bromine

text: After the French chemists Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, Louis Jacques Thénard, and Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac approved the experiments of the young pharmacist Balard, the results were presented at a lecture of the Académie des Sciences and published in "Annales de Chimie et Physique". In his publication, Balard stated that he changed the name from "muride" to "brôme" on the proposal of M. Anglada. The name "brôme" (bromine) derives from the Greek (, "stench"). Other sources claim that the French chemist and physicist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac suggested the name "brôme" for the characteristic smell of the vapors. Bromine was not produced in large quantities until 1858, when the discovery of salt deposits in Stassfurt enabled its production as a by-product of potash.


title: Bromine

text: Apart from some minor medical applications, the first commercial use was the daguerreotype. In 1840, bromine was discovered to have some advantages over the previously used iodine vapor to create the light sensitive silver halide layer in daguerreotypy.


title: Bromine

text: Potassium bromide and sodium bromide were used as anticonvulsants and sedatives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but were gradually superseded by chloral hydrate and then by the barbiturates. In the early years of the First World War, bromine compounds such as xylyl bromide were used as poison gas.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is the third halogen, being a nonmetal in group 17 of the periodic table. Its properties are thus similar to those of fluorine, chlorine, and iodine, and tend to be intermediate between those of the two neighbouring halogens, chlorine, and iodine. Bromine has the electron configuration [Ar]4s3d4p, with the seven electrons in the fourth and outermost shell acting as its valence electrons. Like all halogens, it is thus one electron short of a full octet, and is hence a strong oxidising agent, reacting with many elements in order to complete its outer shell. Corresponding to periodic trends, it is intermediate in electronegativity between chlorine and iodine (F: 3.98, Cl: 3.16, Br: 2.96, I: 2.66), and is less reactive than chlorine and more reactive than iodine. It is also a weaker oxidising agent than chlorine, but a stronger one than iodine. Conversely, the bromide ion is a weaker reducing agent than iodide, but a stronger one than chloride. These similarities led to chlorine, bromine, and iodine together being classified as one of the original triads of Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, whose work foreshadowed the periodic law for chemical elements. It is intermediate in atomic radius between chlorine and iodine, and this leads to many of its atomic properties being similarly intermediate in value between chlorine and iodine, such as first ionisation energy, electron affinity, enthalpy of dissociation of the X molecule (X = Cl, Br, I), ionic radius, and X–X bond length. The volatility of bromine accentuates its very penetrating, choking, and unpleasant odour.


title: Bromine

text: All four stable halogens experience intermolecular van der Waals forces of attraction, and their strength increases together with the number of electrons among all homonuclear diatomic halogen molecules. Thus, the melting and boiling points of bromine are intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine. As a result of the increasing molecular weight of the halogens down the group, the density and heats of fusion and vaporisation of bromine are again intermediate between those of chlorine and iodine, although all their heats of vaporisation are fairly low (leading to high volatility) thanks to their diatomic molecular structure. The halogens darken in colour as the group is descended: fluorine is a very pale yellow gas, chlorine is greenish-yellow, and bromine is a reddish-brown volatile liquid that melts at −7.2 °C and boils at 58.8 °C. (Iodine is a shiny black solid.) This trend occurs because the wavelengths of visible light absorbed by the halogens increase down the group. Specifically, the colour of a halogen, such as bromine, results from the electron transition between the highest occupied antibonding "π" molecular orbital and the lowest vacant antibonding "σ" molecular orbital. The colour fades at low temperatures so that solid bromine at −195 °C is pale yellow.


title: Bromine

text: Like solid chlorine and iodine, solid bromine crystallises in the orthorhombic crystal system, in a layered arrangement of Br molecules. The Br–Br distance is 227 pm (close to the gaseous Br–Br distance of 228 pm) and the Br···Br distance between molecules is 331 pm within a layer and 399 pm between layers (compare the van der Waals radius of bromine, 195 pm). This structure means that bromine is a very poor conductor of electricity, with a conductivity of around 5 × 10 Ω cm just below the melting point, although this is higher than the essentially undetectable conductivity of chlorine.


title: Bromine

text: At a pressure of 55 GPa (roughly 540,000 times atmospheric pressure) bromine undergoes an insulator-to-metal transition. At 75 GPa it changes to a face-centered orthorhombic structure. At 100 GPa it changes to a body centered orthorhombic monatomic form.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine has two stable isotopes, Br and Br. These are its only two natural isotopes, with Br making up 51% of natural bromine and Br making up the remaining 49%. Both have nuclear spin 3/2− and thus may be used for nuclear magnetic resonance, although Br is more favourable. The relatively 1:1 distribution of the two isotopes in nature is helpful in identification of bromine containing compounds using mass spectroscopy. Other bromine isotopes are all radioactive, with half-lives too short to occur in nature. Of these, the most important are Br ("t" = 17.7 min), Br ("t" = 4.421 h), and Br ("t" = 35.28 h), which may be produced from the neutron activation of natural bromine. The most stable bromine radioisotope is Br ("t" = 57.04 h). The primary decay mode of isotopes lighter than Br is electron capture to isotopes of selenium; that of isotopes heavier than Br is beta decay to isotopes of krypton; and Br may decay by either mode to stable Se or Kr.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is intermediate in reactivity between chlorine and iodine, and is one of the most reactive elements. Bond energies to bromine tend to be lower than those to chlorine but higher than those to iodine, and bromine is a weaker oxidising agent than chlorine but a stronger one than iodine. This can be seen from the standard electrode potentials of the X/X couples (F, +2.866 V; Cl, +1.395 V; Br, +1.087 V; I, +0.615 V; At, approximately +0.3 V). Bromination often leads to higher oxidation states than iodination but lower or equal oxidation states to chlorination. Bromine tends to react with compounds including M–M, M–H, or M–C bonds to form M–Br bonds.


title: Bromine

text: The simplest compound of bromine is hydrogen bromide, HBr. It is mainly used in the production of inorganic bromides and alkyl bromides, and as a catalyst for many reactions in organic chemistry. Industrially, it is mainly produced by the reaction of hydrogen gas with bromine gas at 200–400 °C with a platinum catalyst. However, reduction of bromine with red phosphorus is a more practical way to produce hydrogen bromide in the laboratory:


title: Bromine

text: At room temperature, hydrogen bromide is a colourless gas, like all the hydrogen halides apart from hydrogen fluoride, since hydrogen cannot form strong hydrogen bonds to the large and only mildly electronegative bromine atom; however, weak hydrogen bonding is present in solid crystalline hydrogen bromide at low temperatures, similar to the hydrogen fluoride structure, before disorder begins to prevail as the temperature is raised. Aqueous hydrogen bromide is known as hydrobromic acid, which is a strong acid (p"K" = −9) because the hydrogen bonds to bromine are too weak to inhibit dissociation. The HBr/HO system also involves many hydrates HBr·"n"HO for "n" = 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, which are essentially salts of bromine anions and hydronium cations. Hydrobromic acid forms an azeotrope with boiling point 124.3 °C at 47.63 g HBr per 100 g solution; thus hydrobromic acid cannot be concentrated beyond this point by distillation.


title: Bromine

text: Unlike hydrogen fluoride, anhydrous liquid hydrogen bromide is difficult to work with as a solvent, because its boiling point is low, it has a small liquid range, its dielectric constant is low and it does not dissociate appreciably into HBr and ions – the latter, in any case, are much less stable than the bifluoride ions () due to the very weak hydrogen bonding between hydrogen and bromine, though its salts with very large and weakly polarising cations such as Cs and (R = Me, Et, Bu) may still be isolated. Anhydrous hydrogen bromide is a poor solvent, only able to dissolve small molecular compounds such as nitrosyl chloride and phenol, or salts with very low lattice energies such as tetraalkylammonium halides.


title: Bromine

text: Nearly all elements in the periodic table form binary bromides. The exceptions are decidedly in the minority and stem in each case from one of three causes: extreme inertness and reluctance to participate in chemical reactions (the noble gases, with the exception of xenon in the very unstable XeBr); extreme nuclear instability hampering chemical investigation before decay and transmutation (many of the heaviest elements beyond bismuth); and having an electronegativity higher than bromine's (oxygen, nitrogen, fluorine, and chlorine), so that the resultant binary compounds are formally not bromides but rather oxides, nitrides, fluorides, or chlorides of bromine. (Nonetheless, nitrogen tribromide is named as a bromide as it is analogous to the other nitrogen trihalides.)


title: Bromine

text: Bromination of metals with Br tends to yield lower oxidation states than chlorination with Cl when a variety of oxidation states is available. Bromides can be made by reaction of an element or its oxide, hydroxide, or carbonate with hydrobromic acid, and then dehydrated by mildly high temperatures combined with either low pressure or anhydrous hydrogen bromide gas. These methods work best when the bromide product is stable to hydrolysis; otherwise, the possibilities include high-temperature oxidative bromination of the element with bromine or hydrogen bromide, high-temperature bromination of a metal oxide or other halide by bromine, a volatile metal bromide, carbon tetrabromide, or an organic bromide. For example, niobium(V) oxide reacts with carbon tetrabromide at 370 °C to form niobium(V) bromide. Another method is halogen exchange in the presence of excess "halogenating reagent", for example:


title: Bromine

text: When a lower bromide is wanted, either a higher halide may be reduced using hydrogen or a metal as a reducing agent, or thermal decomposition or disproportionation may be used, as follows:


title: Bromine

text: Most metal bromides with the metal in low oxidation states (+1 to +3) are ionic. Nonmetals tend to form covalent molecular bromides, as do metals in high oxidation states from +3 and above. Both ionic and covalent bromides are known for metals in oxidation state +3 (e.g. scandium bromide is mostly ionic, but aluminium bromide is not). Silver bromide is very insoluble in water and is thus often used as a qualitative test for bromine.


title: Bromine

text: The halogens form many binary, diamagnetic interhalogen compounds with stoichiometries XY, XY, XY, and XY (where X is heavier than Y), and bromine is no exception. Bromine forms a monofluoride and monochloride, as well as a trifluoride and pentafluoride. Some cationic and anionic derivatives are also characterised, such as , , , , and . Apart from these, some pseudohalides are also known, such as cyanogen bromide (BrCN), bromine thiocyanate (BrSCN), and bromine azide (BrN).


title: Bromine

text: The pale-brown bromine monofluoride (BrF) is unstable at room temperature, disproportionating quickly and irreversibly into bromine, bromine trifluoride, and bromine pentafluoride. It thus cannot be obtained pure. It may be synthesised by the direct reaction of the elements, or by the comproportionation of bromine and bromine trifluoride at high temperatures. Bromine monochloride (BrCl), a red-brown gas, quite readily dissociates reversibly into bromine and chlorine at room temperature and thus also cannot be obtained pure, though it can be made by the reversible direct reaction of its elements in the gas phase or in carbon tetrachloride. Bromine monofluoride in ethanol readily leads to the monobromination of the aromatic compounds PhX ("para"-bromination occurs for X = Me, Bu, OMe, Br; "meta"-bromination occurs for the deactivating X = –COEt, –CHO, –NO); this is due to heterolytic fission of the Br–F bond, leading to rapid electrophilic bromination by Br.


title: Bromine

text: At room temperature, bromine trifluoride (BrF) is a straw-coloured liquid. It may be formed by directly fluorinating bromine at room temperature and is purified through distillation. It reacts violently with water and explodes on contact with flammable materials, but is a less powerful fluorinating reagent than chlorine trifluoride. It reacts vigorously with boron, carbon, silicon, arsenic, antimony, iodine, and sulfur to give fluorides, and will also convert most metals and many metal compounds to fluorides; as such, it is used to oxidise uranium to uranium hexafluoride in the nuclear power industry. Refractory oxides tend to be only partially fluorinated, but here the derivatives KBrF and BrFSbF remain reactive. Bromine trifluoride is a useful nonaqueous ionising solvent, since it readily dissociates to form and and thus conducts electricity.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine pentafluoride (BrF) was first synthesised in 1930. It is produced on a large scale by direct reaction of bromine with excess fluorine at temperatures higher than 150 °C, and on a small scale by the fluorination of potassium bromide at 25 °C. It also reacts violently with water and is a very strong fluorinating agent, although chlorine trifluoride is still stronger.


title: Bromine

text: Although dibromine is a strong oxidising agent with a high first ionisation energy, very strong oxidisers such as peroxydisulfuryl fluoride (SOF) can oxidise it to form the cherry-red cation. A few other bromine cations are known, namely the brown and dark brown . The tribromide anion, , has also been characterised; it is analogous to triiodide.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine oxides are not as well-characterised as chlorine oxides or iodine oxides, as they are all fairly unstable: it was once thought that they could not exist at all. Dibromine monoxide is a dark-brown solid which, while reasonably stable at −60 °C, decomposes at its melting point of −17.5 °C; it is useful in bromination reactions and may be made from the low-temperature decomposition of bromine dioxide in a vacuum. It oxidises iodine to iodine pentoxide and benzene to 1,4-benzoquinone; in alkaline solutions, it gives the hypobromite anion.


title: Bromine

text: So-called "bromine dioxide", a pale yellow crystalline solid, may be better formulated as bromine perbromate, BrOBrO. It is thermally unstable above −40 °C, violently decomposing to its elements at 0 °C. Dibromine trioxide, "syn"-BrOBrO, is also known; it is the anhydride of hypobromous acid and bromic acid. It is an orange crystalline solid which decomposes above −40 °C; if heated too rapidly, it explodes around 0 °C. A few other unstable radical oxides are also known, as are some poorly characterised oxides, such as dibromine pentoxide, tribromine octoxide, and bromine trioxide.


title: Bromine

text: The four oxoacids, hypobromous acid (HOBr), bromous acid (HOBrO), bromic acid (HOBrO), and perbromic acid (HOBrO), are better studied due to their greater stability, though they are only so in aqueous solution. When bromine dissolves in aqueous solution, the following reactions occur:


title: Bromine

text: Hypobromous acid is unstable to disproportionation. The hypobromite ions thus formed disproportionate readily to give bromide and bromate:


title: Bromine

text: Bromous acids and bromites are very unstable, although the strontium and barium bromites are known. More important are the bromates, which are prepared on a small scale by oxidation of bromide by aqueous hypochlorite, and are strong oxidising agents. Unlike chlorates, which very slowly disproportionate to chloride and perchlorate, the bromate anion is stable to disproportionation in both acidic and aqueous solutions. Bromic acid is a strong acid. Bromides and bromates may comproportionate to bromine as follows:


title: Bromine

text: There were many failed attempts to obtain perbromates and perbromic acid, leading to some rationalisations as to why they should not exist, until 1968 when the anion was first synthesised from the radioactive beta decay of unstable . Today, perbromates are produced by the oxidation of alkaline bromate solutions by fluorine gas. Excess bromate and fluoride are precipitated as silver bromate and calcium fluoride, and the perbromic acid solution may be purified. The perbromate ion is fairly inert at room temperature but is thermodynamically extremely oxidising, with extremely strong oxidising agents needed to produce it, such as fluorine or xenon difluoride. The Br–O bond in is fairly weak, which corresponds to the general reluctance of the 4p elements arsenic, selenium, and bromine to attain their group oxidation state, as they come after the scandide contraction characterised by the poor shielding afforded by the radial-nodeless 3d orbitals.


title: Bromine

text: Like the other carbon–halogen bonds, the C–Br bond is a common functional group that forms part of core organic chemistry. Formally, compounds with this functional group may be considered organic derivatives of the bromide anion. Due to the difference of electronegativity between bromine (2.96) and carbon (2.55), the carbon atom in a C–Br bond is electron-deficient and thus electrophilic. The reactivity of organobromine compounds resembles but is intermediate between the reactivity of organochlorine and organoiodine compounds. For many applications, organobromides represent a compromise of reactivity and cost.


title: Bromine

text: Organobromides are typically produced by additive or substitutive bromination of other organic precursors. Bromine itself can be used, but due to its toxicity and volatility, safer brominating reagents are normally used, such as "N"-bromosuccinimide. The principal reactions for organobromides include dehydrobromination, Grignard reactions, reductive coupling, and nucleophilic substitution.


title: Bromine

text: Organobromides are the most common organohalides in nature, even though the concentration of bromide is only 0.3% of that for chloride in sea water, because of the easy oxidation of bromide to the equivalent of Br, a potent electrophile. The enzyme bromoperoxidase catalyzes this reaction. The oceans are estimated to release 1–2 million tons of bromoform and 56,000 tons of bromomethane annually.


title: Bromine

text: An old qualitative test for the presence of the alkene functional group is that alkenes turn brown aqueous bromine solutions colourless, forming a bromohydrin with some of the dibromoalkane also produced. The reaction passes through a short-lived strongly electrophilic bromonium intermediate. This is an example of a halogen addition reaction.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is significantly less abundant in the crust than fluorine or chlorine, comprising only 2.5 parts per million of the Earth's crustal rocks, and then only as bromide salts. It is the forty-sixth most abundant element in Earth's crust. It is significantly more abundant in the oceans, resulting from long-term leaching. There, it makes up 65 parts per million, corresponding to a ratio of about one bromine atom for every 660 chlorine atoms. Salt lakes and brine wells may have higher bromine concentrations: for example, the Dead Sea contains 0.4% bromide ions. It is from these sources that bromine extraction is mostly economically feasible.


title: Bromine

text: The main sources of bromine are in the United States and Israel. The element is liberated by halogen exchange, using chlorine gas to oxidise Br to Br. This is then removed with a blast of steam or air, and is then condensed and purified. Today, bromine is transported in large-capacity metal drums or lead-lined tanks that can hold hundreds of kilograms or even tonnes of bromine. The bromine industry is about one-hundredth the size of the chlorine industry. Laboratory production is unnecessary because bromine is commercially available and has a long shelf life.


title: Bromine

text: A wide variety of organobromine compounds are used in industry. Some are prepared from bromine and others are prepared from hydrogen bromide, which is obtained by burning hydrogen in bromine.


title: Bromine

text: Brominated flame retardants represent a commodity of growing importance, and make up the largest commercial use of bromine. When the brominated material burns, the flame retardant produces hydrobromic acid which interferes in the radical chain reaction of the oxidation reaction of the fire. The mechanism is that the highly reactive hydrogen radicals, oxygen radicals, and hydroxy radicals react with hydrobromic acid to form less reactive bromine radicals (i.e., free bromine atoms). Bromine atoms may also react directly with other radicals to help terminate the free radical chain-reactions that characterise combustion.


title: Bromine

text: To make brominated polymers and plastics, bromine-containing compounds can be incorporated into the polymer during polymerisation. One method is to include a relatively small amount of brominated monomer during the polymerisation process. For example, vinyl bromide can be used in the production of polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride or polypropylene. Specific highly brominated molecules can also be added that participate in the polymerisation process For example, tetrabromobisphenol A can be added to polyesters or epoxy resins, where it becomes part of the polymer. Epoxies used in printed circuit boards are normally made from such flame retardant resins, indicated by the FR in the abbreviation of the products (FR-4 and FR-2). In some cases, the bromine-containing compound may be added after polymerisation. For example, decabromodiphenyl ether can be added to the final polymers.


title: Bromine

text: A number of gaseous or highly volatile brominated halomethane compounds are non-toxic and make superior fire suppressant agents by this same mechanism, and are particularly effective in enclosed spaces such as submarines, airplanes, and spacecraft. However, they are expensive and their production and use has been greatly curtailed due to their effect as ozone-depleting agents. They are no longer used in routine fire extinguishers, but retain niche uses in aerospace and military automatic fire suppression applications. They include bromochloromethane (Halon 1011, CHBrCl), bromochlorodifluoromethane (Halon 1211, CBrClF), and bromotrifluoromethane (Halon 1301, CBrF).


title: Bromine

text: Silver bromide is used, either alone or in combination with silver chloride and silver iodide, as the light sensitive constituent of photographic emulsions.


title: Bromine

text: Ethylene bromide was an additive in gasolines containing lead anti-engine knocking agents. It scavenges lead by forming volatile lead bromide, which is exhausted from the engine. This application accounted for 77% of the bromine use in 1966 in the US. This application has declined since the 1970s due to environmental regulations (see below).


title: Bromine

text: Brominated vegetable oil (BVO), a complex mixture of plant-derived triglycerides that have been reacted to contain atoms of the element bromine bonded to the molecules, is used primarily to help emulsify citrus-flavored soft drinks, preventing them from separating during distribution.


title: Bromine

text: Poisonous bromomethane was widely used as pesticide to fumigate soil and to fumigate housing, by the tenting method. Ethylene bromide was similarly used. These volatile organobromine compounds are all now regulated as ozone depletion agents. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer scheduled the phase out for the ozone depleting chemical by 2005, and organobromide pesticides are no longer used (in housing fumigation they have been replaced by such compounds as sulfuryl fluoride, which contain neither the chlorine or bromine organics which harm ozone). Before the Montreal protocol in 1991 (for example) an estimated 35,000 tonnes of the chemical were used to control nematodes, fungi, weeds and other soil-borne diseases.


title: Bromine

text: In pharmacology, inorganic bromide compounds, especially potassium bromide, were frequently used as general sedatives in the 19th and early 20th century. Bromides in the form of simple salts are still used as anticonvulsants in both veterinary and human medicine, although the latter use varies from country to country. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not approve bromide for the treatment of any disease, and it was removed from over-the-counter sedative products like Bromo-Seltzer, in 1975. Commercially available organobromine pharmaceuticals include the vasodilator nicergoline, the sedative brotizolam, the anticancer agent pipobroman, and the antiseptic merbromin. Otherwise, organobromine compounds are rarely pharmaceutically useful, in contrast to the situation for organofluorine compounds. Several drugs are produced as the bromide (or equivalents, hydrobromide) salts, but in such cases bromide serves as an innocuous counterion of no biological significance.


title: Bromine

text: Other uses of organobromine compounds include high-density drilling fluids, dyes (such as Tyrian purple and the indicator bromothymol blue), and pharmaceuticals. Bromine itself, as well as some of its compounds, are used in water treatment, and is the precursor of a variety of inorganic compounds with an enormous number of applications (e.g. silver bromide for photography). Zinc–bromine batteries are hybrid flow batteries used for stationary electrical power backup and storage; from household scale to industrial scale.


title: Bromine

text: Bromine is used in cooling towers (in place of chlorine) for controlling bacteria, algae, fungi, and zebra mussels.


title: Bromine

text: Because it has similar antiseptic qualities to chlorine, bromine can be used in the same manner as chlorine as a disinfectant or antimicrobial in applications such as swimming pools. However, bromine is usually not used outside for these applications due to it being relatively more expensive than chlorine and the absence of a stabilizer to protect it from the sun. For indoor pools, it can be a good option as it is effective at a wider pH range. It is also more stable in a heated pool or hot tub.


title: Bromine

text: A 2014 study suggests that bromine (in the form of bromide ion) is a necessary cofactor in the biosynthesis of collagen IV, making the element essential to basement membrane architecture and tissue development in animals. Nevertheless, no clear deprivation symptoms or syndromes have been documented. In other biological functions, bromine may be non-essential but still beneficial when it takes the place of chlorine. For example, in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, HO, formed by the eosinophil, and either chloride or bromide ions, eosinophil peroxidase provides a potent mechanism by which eosinophils kill multicellular parasites (such as, for example, the nematode worms involved in filariasis) and some bacteria (such as tuberculosis bacteria). Eosinophil peroxidase is a haloperoxidase that preferentially uses bromide over chloride for this purpose, generating hypobromite (hypobromous acid), although the use of chloride is possible.


title: Bromine

text: α-Haloesters are generally thought of as highly reactive and consequently toxic intermediates in organic synthesis. Nevertheless, mammals, including humans, cats, and rats, appear to biosynthesize traces of an α-bromoester, 2-octyl 4-bromo-3-oxobutanoate, which is found in their cerebrospinal fluid and appears to play a yet unclarified role in inducing REM sleep. Neutrophil myeloperoxidase can use HO and Br to brominate deoxycytidine, which could result in DNA mutations. Marine organisms are the main source of organobromine compounds, and it is in these organisms that bromine is more firmly shown to be essential. More than 1600 such organobromine compounds were identified by 1999. The most abundant is methyl bromide (CHBr), of which an estimated 56,000 tonnes is produced by marine algae each year. The essential oil of the Hawaiian alga "Asparagopsis taxiformis" consists of 80% bromoform. Most of such organobromine compounds in the sea are made by the action of a unique algal enzyme, vanadium bromoperoxidase.


title: Bromine

text: The bromide anion is not very toxic: a normal daily intake is 2 to 8 milligrams. However, high levels of bromide chronically impair the membrane of neurons, which progressively impairs neuronal transmission, leading to toxicity, known as bromism. Bromide has an elimination half-life of 9 to 12 days, which can lead to excessive accumulation. Doses of 0.5 to 1 gram per day of bromide can lead to bromism. Historically, the therapeutic dose of bromide is about 3 to 5 grams of bromide, thus explaining why chronic toxicity (bromism) was once so common. While significant and sometimes serious disturbances occur to neurologic, psychiatric, dermatological, and gastrointestinal functions, death from bromism is rare. Bromism is caused by a neurotoxic effect on the brain which results in somnolence, psychosis, seizures and delirium.


title: Bromine

text: Elemental bromine is toxic and causes chemical burns on human flesh. Inhaling bromine gas results in similar irritation of the respiratory tract, causing coughing, choking, shortness of breath, and death if inhaled in large enough amounts. Chronic exposure may lead to frequent bronchial infections and a general deterioration of health. As a strong oxidising agent, bromine is incompatible with most organic and inorganic compounds. Caution is required when transporting bromine; it is commonly carried in steel tanks lined with lead, supported by strong metal frames. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States has set a permissible exposure limit (PEL) for bromine at a time-weighted average (TWA) of 0.1 ppm. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of TWA 0.1 ppm and a short-term limit of 0.3 ppm. The exposure to bromine immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) is 3 ppm. Bromine is classified as an extremely hazardous substance in the United States as defined in Section 302 of the U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (42 U.S.C. 11002), and is subject to strict reporting requirements by facilities which produce, store, or use it in significant quantities.


title: Doughnut

text: A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty vendors. "Doughnut" is the traditional spelling, while "donut" is the simplified version; the terms are used interchangeably.


title: Doughnut

text: Doughnuts are usually deep fried from a flour dough, but other types of batters can also be used. Various toppings and flavorings are used for different types, such as sugar, chocolate or maple glazing. Doughnuts may also include water, leavening, eggs, milk, sugar, oil, shortening, and natural or artificial flavors.


title: Doughnut

text: The two most common types are the ring doughnut and the filled doughnut, which is injected with fruit preserves (the jelly doughnut), cream, custard, or other sweet fillings. Small pieces of dough are sometimes cooked as doughnut holes. Once fried, doughnuts may be glazed with a sugar icing, spread with icing or chocolate, or topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon, sprinkles or fruit. Other shapes include balls, flattened spheres, twists, and other forms. Doughnut varieties are also divided into cake (including the old-fashioned) and yeast-risen doughnuts. Doughnuts are often accompanied by coffee or milk. They are sold at doughnut shops, convenience stores, petrol/gas stations, cafes or fast food restaurants.


title: Doughnut

text: The cookbook "Küchenmeisterei" ("Mastery of the Kitchen"), published in Nuremberg in 1485, offers a recipe for "Gefüllte Krapfen", sugar free, stuffed, fried dough cakes.


title: Doughnut

text: Dutch settlers brought "olykoek" ("oil(y) cake") to New York (or New Amsterdam) in the early 18th century. These doughnuts closely resembled later ones but did not yet have their current ring shape.


title: Doughnut

text: A recipe for fried dough "nuts" was published, in 1750 England, under the title "How to make Hertfordshire Cakes, Nuts and Pincushions”, in "The Country Housewife’s Family Companion by William Ellis."


title: Doughnut

text: A recipe labelled "dow nuts", again from Hertfordshire, was found in a book of recipes and domestic tips written around 1800, by the wife of Baron Thomas Dimsdale, the recipe being given to the dowager Baroness by an acquaintance who transcribed for her the cooking instructions for a "dow nut".


title: Doughnut

text: The first cookbook using the near conventional "dough nuts" spelling was possibly the 1803 edition of "The Frugal Housewife: Or, Complete Woman Cook", which included dough nuts in an appendix of American recipes.


title: Doughnut

text: One of the earliest mentions of "dough-nut" was in Washington Irving's 1809 book "A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty":


title: Doughnut

text: The name "oly koeks" was almost certainly related to the "oliekoek": a Dutch delicacy of "sweetened cake fried in fat."


title: Doughnut

text: One of the earliest known literary usages of the term dates to an 1808 short story describing a spread of "fire-cakes and dough-nuts". Washington Irving described "dough-nuts", in his 1809 "History of New York, as" "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called dough-nuts, or" olykoeks"." These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called doughnut holes (see holes section). The word "nut" is here used in the earlier sense of "small rounded cake or cookie", also seen in ginger nut. "Doughnut" is the traditional spelling and still dominates even in the United States though "donut" is often used. At present, "doughnut" and the shortened form "donut" are both pervasive in American English.


title: Doughnut

text: The first known printed use of "donut" was in "Peck's Bad Boy and his Pa" by George W. Peck, published in 1900, in which a character is quoted as saying, "Pa said he guessed he hadn't got much appetite, and he would just drink a cup of coffee and eat a donut." According to author John T. Edge the alternative spelling "donut" was invented in the 1920s when the New York–based Display Doughnut Machine Corporation abbreviated the word to make it more pronounceable by the foreigners they hoped would buy their automated doughnut making equipment. The donut spelling also showed up in a "Los Angeles Times" article dated August 10, 1929 in which Bailey Millard jokingly complains about the decline of spelling, and that he "can't swallow the 'wel-dun donut' nor the ever so 'gud bred'."


title: Doughnut

text: The interchangeability of the two spellings can be found in a series of "National Donut Week" articles in "The New York Times" that covered the 1939 World's Fair. In four articles beginning October 9, two mention the "donut" spelling. Dunkin' Donuts, which was so-named in 1950, following its 1948 founding under the name Open Kettle (Quincy, Massachusetts), is the oldest surviving company to use the "donut" variation; other chains, such as the defunct Mayflower Doughnut Corporation (1931), did not use that spelling. According to the Oxford Dictionaries while "doughnut" is used internationally, the spelling "donut" is American. The spelling "donut" remained rare until the 1950s, and has since grown significantly in popularity; this growth in use has possibly been influenced by the spread of Dunkin' Donuts.


title: Doughnut

text: Hanson Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring-shaped doughnut in 1847 aboard a lime-trading ship when he was 16 years old. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes and with the raw center of regular doughnuts. He claimed to have punched a hole in the center of dough with the ship's tin pepper box, and to have later taught the technique to his mother. "Smithsonian Magazine" states that his mother, Elizabeth Gregory, "made a deep-fried dough that cleverly used her son's spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon, along with lemon rind," and "put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through", and called the food 'doughnuts'.


title: Doughnut

text: Ring doughnuts are formed by one of two methods: by joining the ends of a long, skinny piece of dough into a ring, or by using a doughnut cutter, which simultaneously cuts the outside and inside shape, leaving a doughnut-shaped piece of dough and a doughnut hole (the dough removed from the center). This smaller piece of dough can be cooked and served as a "doughnut hole" or added back to the batch to make more doughnuts. A disk-shaped doughnut can also be stretched and pinched into a torus until the center breaks to form a hole. Alternatively, a doughnut depositor can be used to place a circle of liquid dough (batter) directly into the fryer.


title: Doughnut

text: There are two types of ring doughnuts, those made from a yeast-based dough for raised doughnuts, or those made from a special type of cake batter. Yeast-raised doughnuts contain about 25% oil by weight, whereas cake doughnuts' oil content is around 20%, but have extra fat included in the batter before frying. Cake doughnuts are fried for about 90 seconds at approximately , turning once. Yeast-raised doughnuts absorb more oil because they take longer to fry, about 150 seconds, at . Cake doughnuts typically weigh between , whereas yeast-raised doughnuts average and are generally larger, and taller (due to rising) when finished.


title: Doughnut

text: Daniela Galarza, for "Eater", wrote that "the now-standard doughnut’s hole is still up for debate. Food writer Michael Krondl surmises that the shape came from recipes that called for the dough to be shaped like a jumble – a once common ring-shaped cookie. In "Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People", culinary historian Linda Civitello writes that the hole was invented because it allowed the doughnuts to cook faster. By 1870 doughnut cutters shaped in two concentric circles, one smaller than the other, began to appear in home-shopping catalogues".


title: Doughnut

text: After frying, ring doughnuts are often topped. Raised doughnuts are generally covered with a glaze (icing). Cake doughnuts can also be glazed, powdered with confectioner's sugar, or covered with cinnamon and granulated sugar. They are also often topped with cake frosting (top only) and sometimes sprinkled with coconut, chopped peanuts, or sprinkles (also called jimmies).


title: Doughnut

text: Doughnut holes are small, bite-sized doughnuts that were traditionally made from the dough taken from the center of ring doughnuts. Before long, doughnut sellers saw the opportunity to market "holes" as a novelty and many chains offer their own variety, some with their own brand names such as "Munchkins" from Dunkin' Donuts and "Timbits" from Tim Hortons.


title: Doughnut

text: Traditionally, doughnut holes are made by frying the dough removed from the center portion of the doughnut. Consequently, they are considerably smaller than a standard doughnut and tend to be spherical. Similar to standard doughnuts, doughnut holes may be topped with confections, such as glaze or powdered sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: Originally, most varieties of doughnut holes were derivatives of their ring doughnut (yeast-based dough or cake batter) counterparts. However, doughnut holes can also be made by dropping a small ball of dough into hot oil from a specially shaped nozzle or cutter. This production method has allowed doughnut sellers to produce bite-sized versions of non-ring doughnuts, such as filled doughnuts, fritters and Dutchies.


title: Doughnut

text: Filled doughnuts are flattened spheres injected with fruit preserves, cream, custard, or other sweet fillings, and often dipped into powdered sugar or topped off with frosting. Common varieties include the Boston cream, coconut, key lime, and jelly.


title: Doughnut

text: Others include the fritter and the Dutchie, which are usually glazed. These have been available on Tim Hortons' doughnut menu since the chain's inception in 1964, and a 1991 "Toronto Star" report found these two were the chain's most popular type of fried dough in Canada.


title: Doughnut

text: There are many other specialized doughnut shapes such as old-fashioned, bars or Long Johns (a rectangular shape), or twists. Other shapes include balls, flattened spheres, twists, and other forms. In the northeast United States, bars and twists are usually referred to as "crullers". Another is the beignet, a square-shaped doughnut covered with powdered sugar, commonly associated with New Orleans.


title: Doughnut

text: Yeast doughnuts and cake doughnuts contain most of the same ingredients, however, their structural differences arise from the type of flour and leavening agent used. In cake doughnuts, cake flour is used, and the resulting doughnut has a different texture because cake flour has a relatively low protein content of about 7 to 8 percent. In yeast doughnuts, a flour with a higher protein content of about 9 to 12 percent is used, resulting in a doughnut that is lighter and more airy. In addition, yeast doughnuts utilize yeast as a leavening agent. Specifically, "Yeast cells are thoroughly distributed throughout the dough and begin to feed on the sugar that is present ... carbon dioxide gas is generated, which raises the dough, making it light and porous." Whereas this process is biological, the leavening process in cake doughnuts is chemical. In cake doughnuts, the most common leavening agent is baking powder. Baking powder is essentially "baking soda with acid added. This neutralizes the base and produces more CO according to the following equation: NaHCO + H → Na + HO + CO"


title: Doughnut

text: The physical structure of the doughnut is created by the combination of flour, leavening agent, sugar, eggs, salt, water, shortening, milk solids, and additional components. The most important ingredients for creating the dough network are the flour and eggs. The main protein in flour is gluten, which is overall responsible for creating elastic dough because this protein acts as "coiled springs." The gluten network is composed of two separate molecules named glutenin and gliadin. Specifically, "the backbone of the gluten network likely consists of the largest glutenin molecules, or subunits, aligned and tightly linked to one another. These tightly linked glutenin subunits associate more loosely, along with gliadin, into larger gluten aggregates." The gluten strands than tangle and interact with other strands and other molecules, resulting in networks that provide the elasticity of the dough. In mixing, the gluten is developed when the force of the mixer draws the gluten from the wheat endosperm, allowing the gluten matrix to trap the gas cells.


title: Doughnut

text: Eggs function as emulsifiers, foaming agents, and tenderizers in the dough. The egg white proteins, mainly ovalbumin, "function as structure formers. Egg solids, chiefly the egg white solids combined with the moisture in the egg, are considered structure-forming materials that help significantly to produce proper volume, grain, and texture." The egg yolk contributes proteins, fats, and emulsifiers to the dough. Emulsifying agents are essential to doughnut formation because they prevent the fat molecules from separating from the water molecules in the dough. The main emulsifier in egg yolk is called lecithin, which is a phospholipid. "The fatty acids are attracted to fats and oils (lipids) in food, while the phosphate group is attracted to water. It is this ability to attract both lipids and water that allow phospholipids such as lecithin to act as emulsifiers." The proteins from both the egg yolk and the egg whites contribute to the structure of the dough through a process called coagulation. When heat is applied to the dough, the egg proteins will begin to unfold, or denature, and then form new bonds with one another, thus creating a gel-like network that can hold water and gas.


title: Doughnut

text: Shortening is responsible for providing tenderness and aerating the dough. In terms of its molecular structure, "a typical shortening that appears solid [at room temperature] contains 15–20% solids and, hence, 80–85% liquid oil ... this small amount of solids can be made to hold all of the liquid in a matrix of very small, stable, needlelike crystals (beta-prime crystals)." This crystalline structure is considered highly stable due to how tightly its molecules are packed. The sugar used in baking is essentially sucrose, and besides imparting sweetness in the doughnut, sugar also functions in the color and tenderness of the final product. Sucrose is a simple carbohydrate whose structure is made up of a glucose molecule bound to a fructose molecule. Milk is utilized in the making of doughnuts, but in large scale bakeries, one form of milk used is nonfat dry milk solids. These solids are obtained by removing most of the water from skim milk with heat, and this heat additionally denatures the whey proteins and increases the absorption properties of the remaining proteins. The ability of the casein and whey proteins to absorb excess water is essential to prolonging the doughnut's freshness. The major whey protein in the nonfat milk solids is known as beta-lactoglobulin, and a crucial feature of its structure is that there exists a single sulfhydryl group that is protected by the alpha helix, and when heating of the milk solids occurs, these groups participate in disulfide exchanges with other molecules. This interchange prevents the renaturation of the whey proteins. If the crosslinking of the sulfide groups does not occur, the whey proteins can rebond and weaken the gluten network.


title: Doughnut

text: Water is a necessary ingredient in the production of doughnuts because it activates the other ingredients, allowing them to perform their functions in building the doughnut's structure. For example, sugar and salt crystals must be dissolved in order for them to act in the dough, whereas larger molecules, such as the starches or proteins, must be hydrated in order for them to absorb moisture. Another important consideration of water is its degree of hardness, which measures the amount of impurities in the water source. Pure water consists of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, but water used in baking often is not pure. Baker's salt (NaCl) is usually used as an ingredient due to its high purity, whereas the salts in water are derived from varying minerals. As an ingredient, "salt is added to enhance the flavour of cakes and breads and to ‘toughen up’ the soft mixture of fat and sugar." If relatively soft water is being used, more salt should be added in order to strengthen the gluten network of the dough, but if not enough salt is added during the baking process, the flavor of the bread will not be appealing to consumers.


title: Doughnut

text: Doughnuts are unhealthy, though some are less so than others. According to "Prevention Magazine", doughnuts made from enriched flour provide some thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin, along with some fiber, but they are high in sugar and calories. Steps to improve the healthiness of doughnuts include removing trans fats.


title: Doughnut

text: An important property of the dough that affects the final product is the dough's rheology. This property measures the ability of the dough to flow. It can be represented by the power law equation: formula_1 where formula_2 is the tangentic stress, formula_3 is the viscosity coefficient, formula_4 is the shear rate, and formula_5 is the flow index. Many factors affect dough rheology including the type of ingredients, the amount of the ingredients, or the force applied during mixing. Dough is usually described as a viscoelastic material, meaning that its rheology depends on both the viscosity and the elasticity. The viscosity coefficient and the flow index are unique to the type of dough being analyzed, while the tangentic stress and the shear rate are measurements obtained depending on the type force being applied to the dough.


title: Doughnut

text: "Nom kong" (នំបុ័ងកង់), the traditional Cambodian doughnut, is named after its shape – the word ‘កង់’ (pronounced "kong" in Khmer) literally means “wheel”, whilst "nom" (‘នំបុ័ង’) is the general word for pastry or any kind of starchy food. A very inexpensive treat for everyday Cambodians, this sweet pastry consists of a jasmine rice flour dough moulded into a classic ring shape and then deep fried in fat, then drizzled with a palm sugar toffee and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The rice flour gives it a chewy texture that Cambodians are fond of. This childhood snack is what inspired Cambodian-American entrepreneur Ted Ngoy to build his doughnut empire, inspiring the film The Donut King.


title: Doughnut

text: A few sweet, doughnut-style pastries are regional in nature. Cantonese cuisine features an oval-shaped pastry called "ngàuhleisōu" (牛脷酥, lit. "ox-tongue pastry", due to its tongue-like shape).


title: Doughnut

text: A spherical food called "saa1 jung" (沙翁), which is also similar to a cream puff but denser with a doughnut-like texture and usually prepared with sugar sprinkled on top, is normally available in dim sum


title: Doughnut

text: Cantonese restaurants. An oilier Beijing variant of this called 高力豆沙, "gaoli dousha", is filled with red bean paste; originally, it was made with egg white instead of dough. Many Chinese cultures make a chewy doughnut known as "shuangbaotai" (雙包胎), which consists of two conjoined balls of dough.


title: Doughnut

text: Chinese restaurants in the United States sometimes serve small fried pastries similar to doughnut holes with condensed milk as a sauce.


title: Doughnut

text: Chinese cuisine features long, deep-fried doughnut sticks that are often quite oily, hence their name in Mandarin, "yóutiáo" (油條, "oil strips"); in Cantonese, this doughnut-style pastry is called "yàuhjagwái" (油炸鬼, "ghosts fried in oil"). These pastries are lightly salted and are often served with congee, a traditional rice porridge or soy milk for breakfast.


title: Doughnut

text: In India, an old-fashioned sweet called gulgula is made of sweetened, deep-fried flour balls. A leavening agent may or may not be used.


title: Doughnut

text: There are a couple of unrelated doughnut-shaped food items. A savory, fried, ring-shaped snack called a "vada" is often referred to as the Indian doughnut. The "vada" is made from "dal", lentil or potato flours rather than wheat flour. In North India, it is in the form of a bulging disc called "dahi-vada", and is soaked in curd, sprinkled with spices and sliced vegetables, and topped with a sweet and sour chutney. In South India, a vada is eaten with "sambar" and a coconut chutney.


title: Doughnut

text: Sweet pastries similar to old-fashioned doughnuts called "badushahi" and "jalebi" are also popular. "Balushahi", also called "badushah", is made from flour, deep fried in clarified butter, and dipped in sugar syrup. Unlike a doughnut, "balushahi" is dense. A "balushahi" is ring-shaped, but the well in the center does not go all the way through to form a hole typical of a doughnut. "Jalebi", which is typically pretzel-shaped, is made by deep frying batter in oil and soaking it in sugar syrup. A variant of "jalebi", called "imarti", is shaped with a small ring in the center around which a geometric pattern is arranged.


title: Doughnut

text: Along with these Indian variants, typical varieties of doughnuts are also available from U.S. chains such as Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts retail outlets, as well as local brands such as Mad Over Donuts and the Donut Baker.


title: Doughnut

text: The Indonesian, "donat kentang" is a potato doughnut, a ring-shaped fritter made from flour and mashed potatoes, coated in powder sugar or icing sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: In Japan, "an-doughnut" (あんドーナッツ, "bean paste doughnut") is widely available at bakeries. "An-doughnut" is similar to Germany's "Berliner", except it contains red azuki bean paste. Mister Donut is one of the most popular doughnut chains in Japan. Native to Okinawa is a spheroid pastry similar to doughnuts called "sata andagi". Mochi donuts are "a cross between a traditional cake-like doughnut and chewy mochi dough similar to what’s wrapped around ice cream". This hybrid confection was originally popularized in Japan by Mister Donut before spreading to the United States via Hawaii. The Mister Donut style, also known as "pon de ring", uses tapioca flour and produces mochi donuts that are easy to pull apart. Another variation developed in the United States uses glutinous rice flour which produces a denser mochi donut akin to Hawaiian-style butter mochi. Mochi donuts made from glutinous rice flour "typically contain half the amount of calories as the standard cake or yeast doughnut".


title: Doughnut

text: "Kuih keria" is a hole doughnut made from boiled sweet potato that is mashed. The sweet potato mash is shaped into rings and fried. The hot doughnut is then rolled in granulated sugar. The result is a doughnut with a sugar-crusted skin.


title: Doughnut

text: "Sel roti" is a Nepali homemade, ring-shaped, rice doughnut prepared during Tihar, the widely celebrated Hindu festival in Nepal. A semiliquid dough is usually prepared by adding milk, water, sugar, butter, cardamom, and mashed banana to rice flour, which is often left to ferment for up to 24 hours. A "sel roti" is traditionally fried in "ghee".


title: Doughnut

text: Doughnuts are available at most bakeries across Pakistan. The Navaz Sharif variety, available mainly in the city of Karachi, is covered in chocolate and filled with cream, similar to a Boston cream. Doughnuts can readily be found at the many Dunkin' Donuts branches spread across Pakistan.


title: Doughnut

text: Local varieties of doughnuts sold by peddlers and street vendors throughout the Philippines are usually made of plain well-kneaded dough, deep-fried in refined coconut oil and sprinkled with refined (not powdered or confectioner's) sugar. Round versions of this doughnut are known as "buñuelos" (also spelled "bunwelos", and sometimes confusingly known as ""bicho-bicho""), similar to the doughnuts in Spain and former Spanish colonies. Indigenous versions of the doughnut also exist, like the "cascaron", which is prepared similarly, but uses ground glutinous rice and coconut milk in place of wheat flour and milk.


title: Doughnut

text: Other native doughnut recipes include the "shakoy", "kumukunsi", and "binangkal". "Shakoy" or "siyakoy" from the Visayas islands (also known as "lubid-lubid" in the northern Philippines) uses a length of dough twisted into a distinctive rope-like shape before being fried. The preparation is almost exactly the same as doughnuts, though there are variants made from glutinous rice flour. The texture can range from soft and fluffy, to sticky and chewy, to hard and crunchy (in the latter case, they are known as "pilipit"). They are sprinkled with white sugar, but can also be topped with sesame seeds or caramelized sugar. "Kumukunsi" is a "jalebi"-like native doughnut from the Maguindanao people. It is made with rice flour, duck eggs, and sugar that is molded into rope-like strands and then fried in a loose spiral. It has the taste and consistency of a creamy pancake. "Binangkal" are simple fried dough balls covered in sesame seeds. Other fried dough desserts include the mesh-like "lokot-lokot", the fried rice cake "panyalam", and the banana fritter "maruya", among others.


title: Doughnut

text: In Thailand, a popular breakfast food is "pa thong ko", also known as Thai donuts, a version of the Chinese "yiu ja guoy/youtiao". Often sold from food stalls in markets or by the side of the road, these doughnuts are small, sometimes X-shaped, and sold by the bag full. They are often eaten in the morning with hot Thai tea.


title: Doughnut

text: Vietnamese varieties of doughnuts include "bánh tiêu"," bánh cam", and "bánh rán". "Bánh tiêu" is a sesame-topped, deep-fried pastry that is hallow. It can be eaten alone or cut in half and served with "bánh bò", a gelatinous cake, placed inside the pastry. "Bánh cam" is from Southern Vietnam and is a ball-shaped, deep-fried pastry coated entirely in sesame seeds and containing a mung bean paste filling. "Bánh rán" is from Northern Vietnam and is similar to "bánh cam"; however, the difference is that "bánh rán "is covered with a sugar glaze after being deep-fried and its mung bean paste filling includes a jasmine essence.


title: Doughnut

text: In Austria, doughnut equivalents are called "Krapfen". They are especially popular during Carneval season (Fasching), and do not have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid and usually filled with apricot jam (traditional) or vanilla cream ("Vanillekrapfen"). A second variant, called "Bauernkrapfen" are also made of yeast dough, and have a thick outside ring, but are very thin in the middle.


title: Doughnut

text: In Belgium, the "smoutebollen" in Dutch, or "croustillons" in French, are similar to the Dutch kind of "oliebollen", but they usually do not contain any fruit, except for apple chunks sometimes. They are typical carnival and fair snacks and are coated with powdered sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: U.S.-style doughnuts are available in the Czech Republic, but before they were solid shape and filled with jelly (strawberry or peach). The shape is similar to doughnuts in Germany or Poland. They are called "Kobliha" ("Koblihy" in plural). They may be filled with nougat or with vanilla custard. There are now many fillings; cut in half or non-filled knots with sugar and cinnamon on top.


title: Doughnut

text: In Denmark, U.S.-style doughnuts may be found at various stores, e.g. McDonald's and most gas stations. The Berliner, however, is also available in bakeries.


title: Doughnut

text: in Finland, a sweet doughnut is called a "munkki" (the word also means "monk") and are commonly eaten in cafés and cafeteria restaurants. It is sold cold and sometimes filled with jam (like U.S. jelly donuts) or a vanilla sauce. A ring doughnut is also known as "donitsi".


title: Doughnut

text: A savory form of doughnut is the "lihapiirakka" (literally "meat pie"). Made from a doughnut mixture and deep fried, the end product is more akin to a savory doughnut than any pie known in the English-speaking world.


title: Doughnut

text: Doughnuts similar to the Berliner are prepared in the northern Balkans, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia and Serbia ("pokladnice" or "krofne"). They are also called "krofna", "krafna" or "krafne", a name derived from the Austrian "Krapfen" for this pastry. In Croatia, they are especially popular during Carneval season and do not have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid. Traditionally, they are filled with jam (apricot or plum). However, they can be filled with vanilla or chocolate cream. Other types of doughnuts are "uštipci" and "fritule".


title: Doughnut

text: The French "beignet", literally "bump", is the French and New Orleans equivalent of a doughnut: a pastry made from deep-fried choux pastry.


title: Doughnut

text: In parts of Germany, the doughnut equivalents are called "Berliner" (sg. and pl.), but not in the capital city of Berlin itself and neighboring areas, where they are called "Pfannkuchen" (which is often found misleading by people in the rest of Germany, who use the word "Pfannkuchen" to describe a pancake, which is also the literal translation of it). Both "Berliner" and "Pfannkuchen" are abbreviations of the term "Berliner Pfannkuchen", however.


title: Doughnut

text: In middle Germany, doughnuts are called "Kreppel" or "Pfannkuchen". In southern Germany, they are also called "Krapfen" and are especially popular during Carnival season ("Karneval"/"Fasching") in southern and middle Germany and on New Year's Eve in northern Germany. A "Berliner" does not have the typical ring shape of a doughnut, but instead is solid and usually filled with jam, while a ring-shaped variant called "Kameruner" is common in Berlin and eastern Germany. "Bismarcks" and "Berlin doughnuts" are also found in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and the United States. Today, U.S.-style doughnuts are also available in Germany, but are less popular than their native counterparts.


title: Doughnut

text: In Greece, a doughnut-like snack called "loukoumas (λουκουμάς)", which is spherical and soaked in honey syrup, is available. It is often served with sprinkled cinnamon and grated walnuts or sesame seeds.


title: Doughnut

text: Fánk is a sweet traditional Hungarian cake. The most commonly used ingredients are flour, yeast, butter, egg yolk, rum, salt, milk and oil for frying. The dough is allowed to rise for approximately 30 minutes, resulting in an extremely light pastry. "Fánk" is usually served with powdered sugar and lekvar.


title: Doughnut

text: It is supposed that "Fánk" pastry is of the same origin as German Berliner, Dutch "oliebol", and Polish "pączki".


title: Doughnut

text: Italian doughnuts include ciambelle, krapfen from Trentino-Alto Adige, zippuli or zeppole from Calabria and Campania, maritozzi from Latium, above all Rome, bomboloni from Tuscany, frittelle from Veneto and many others. In the island of Sardinia there is a particular donut, a ring cake called "lorica".


title: Doughnut

text: In Lithuania, a kind of doughnut called "spurgos" is widely known. Some spurgos are similar to Polish pączki, but some specific recipes, such as cottage cheese doughnuts ("varškės spurgos"), were invented independently.


title: Doughnut

text: In the Netherlands, "oliebollen", referred to in cookbooks as "Dutch doughnuts", are a type of fritter, with or without raisins or currants, and usually sprinkled with powdered sugar. Variations of the recipe contain slices of apple or other fruits. They are traditionally eaten as part of New Year celebrations.


title: Doughnut

text: In Norway, smultring is the prevailing type of doughnut traditionally sold in bakeries, shops, and stalls. However, U.S.-style doughnuts are widely available in larger supermarkets, McDonald's restaurants, 7-elevens and bakeries. The Berliner is more common than U.S.-style doughnut, and sold in most supermarkets and bakeries alongside "smultring" doughnuts.


title: Doughnut

text: In Poland and parts of the U.S. with a large Polish community, like Chicago and Detroit, the round, jam-filled doughnuts eaten especially—though not exclusively—during the Carnival are called pączki (). Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages. Jędrzej Kitowicz has described that during the reign of the Augustus III under influence of French cooks who came to Poland at that time, pączki dough fried in Poland has been improved, so that pączki became lighter, spongier, and more resilient.


title: Doughnut

text: The malasada is a common type of holeless donut created in Portugal. They are made of fried dough. In Madeira and the Azores they are eaten on Fat Tuesday. It is also popular in Hawaii and Cape Cod. The malasada arrived after immigrants came in.


title: Doughnut

text: The Romanian dessert "gogoși" are fried dough balls similar to filled doughnuts. They are stuffed with chocolate, jam, cheese and other combinations and may be dusted with icing sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: In Russia and the other Post-Soviet countries, "ponchiki" (, plural form of пончик, "ponchik") or (, especially in St. Petersburg) are a very popular sweet doughnut, with many fast and simple recipes available in Russian cookbooks for making them at home as a breakfast or coffee pastry.


title: Doughnut

text: In Slovenia, a jam-filled doughnut known as "krofi", is very popular. It is the typical sweet during Carnival time, but is to be found in most bakeries during the whole year. The most famous "krofi" come from the village of Trojane in central Slovenia, and are originally filled with apricot jam filling.


title: Doughnut

text: In Spain, there are two different types of doughnuts. The first one, simply called "donuts", or more traditionally "berlinesas", is a U.S.-style doughnut, i.e., a deep-fried, sweet, soft, ring of flour dough.


title: Doughnut

text: The second type of doughnut is a traditional pastry called "rosquilla" or "rosquete" (the latter name is typical in the Canary Islands), made of fermented dough and fried or baked in an oven. "Rosquillas" were purportedly introduced in Spain by the Romans. In Spain, there are several variants of them depending on the region where they are prepared and the time of the year they are sold. In some regions they are considered a special pastry prepared only for Easter. Although overall they are more tightly textured and less sweet than U.S.-style doughnuts, they differ greatly in shape, size and taste from one region to another.


title: Doughnut

text: The "churro" is a sweet pastry of deep-fried dough similar to a doughnut but shaped as a long, thin, ribbed cylinder rather than a ring or sphere. "Churros" are commonly served dusted in sugar as a snack or with a cup of hot chocolate.


title: Doughnut

text: Similar to the Finnish "munkki", the Swedish "munk" is a sweet doughnut commonly eaten as "fika" along with coffee. It is sold cold and is sometimes filled with jam (U.S. jelly) or a vanilla sauce. A ring doughnut is also known as simply "munk".


title: Doughnut

text: In Ukraine doughnuts are called "pampushky" (). "Pampushky" are made of yeast dough containing wheat, rye or buckwheat flour. Traditionally they are baked, but may also be fried. According to William Pokhlyobkin, the technology of making "pampushky" points to German cuisine, and these buns were possibly created by German colonists in Ukraine.


title: Doughnut

text: In some parts of Scotland, ring doughnuts are referred to as "doughrings", with the 'doughnut' name being reserved exclusively for the nut-shaped variety. Glazed, twisted rope-shaped doughnuts are known as "yum-yums". It is also possible to buy fudge doughnuts in certain regions of Scotland. Fillings include jam, custard, cream, sweet mincemeat, chocolate and apple. Common ring toppings are sprinkle-iced and chocolate.


title: Doughnut

text: In Northern Ireland, ring doughnuts are known as "gravy rings", "gravy" being an archaic term for hot cooking oil.


title: Doughnut

text: A "kurma" is a small, sweet, fried cube-shaped or rectangular doughnut which originated in Eastern India but is sold in Trinidad and Tobago.


title: Doughnut

text: A traditional Puntarenas cream-filled doughnut is round and robust, managing to keep the cream inside liquified. They are popular in Costa Rica.


title: Doughnut

text: The Mexican "donas" are similar to doughnuts, including the name; the dona is a fried-dough pastry-based snack, commonly covered with powdered brown sugar and cinnamon, white sugar or chocolate.


title: Doughnut

text: Frosted, glazed, powdered, Boston cream, coconut, sour cream, cinnamon, chocolate, and jelly are some of the varieties eaten in the United States and Canada. There are also potato doughnuts (sometimes referred to as spudnuts).


title: Doughnut

text: Doughnuts are ubiquitous in the United States and can be found in most grocery stores, as well as in specialty .


title: Doughnut

text: A popular doughnut in Hawaii is the malasada. Malasadas were brought to the Hawaiian Islands by early Portuguese settlers, and are a variation on Portugal's filhós. They are small, eggy balls of yeast dough deep-fried and coated in sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: Immigrants have brought various doughnut varieties to the United States. To celebrate Fat Tuesday in eastern Pennsylvania, churches sell a potato starch doughnut called a Fastnacht (or Fasnacht). The treats are so popular there that Fat Tuesday is often called Fastnacht Day. The Polish doughnut, the pączki, is popular in U.S. cities with large Polish communities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit.


title: Doughnut

text: In regions of the country where apples are widely grown, especially the Northeast and Midwest states, cider doughnuts are a harvest season specialty, especially at orchards open to tourists, where they can be served fresh. Cider doughnuts are a cake doughnut with apple cider in the batter. The use of cider affects both the texture and flavor, resulting in a denser, moister product. They are often coated with either granulated, powdered sugar, or cinnamon sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: In southern Louisiana, a popular variety of the doughnut is the beignet, a fried, square doughnut served traditionally with powdered sugar. Perhaps the most well-known purveyor of beignets is New Orleans restaurant Cafe Du Monde.


title: Doughnut

text: The Persian "zoolbia" and "bamiyeh" are fritters of various shapes and sizes coated in a sugar syrup. Doughnuts are also made in the home in Iran, referred to as doughnut, even in the plural.


title: Doughnut

text: Jelly doughnuts, known as "sufganiyah" (סופגניה, pl. sufganiyot סופגניות) in Israel, have become a traditional Hanukkah food in the recent era, as they are cooked in oil, associated with the holiday account of the miracle of the oil. Traditional "sufganiyot" are filled with red jelly and topped with icing sugar. However, many other varieties exist, with some being filled with "dulce de leche" (particularly common after the South American aliyah early in the 21st century).


title: Doughnut

text: In Tunisia, traditional pastries similar to doughnuts are "yo-yos". They come in different versions both as balls and in shape of doughnuts. They are deep-fried and covered in a honey syrup or a kind of frosting. Sesame seeds are also used for flavor and decoration along with orange juice and vanilla.


title: Doughnut

text: In Australia, the doughnut is a popular snack food. Jam doughnuts are particularly popular, especially in Melbourne, Victoria and the Queen Victoria Market, where they are a tradition. Jam doughnuts are similar to a Berliner, but are served hot: red jam (raspberry or strawberry) is injected into the bun before it is deep-fried, and then it is coated with either sugar or sugar mixed with cinnamon as soon as it has been cooked. Jam doughnuts are sometimes also bought frozen. In South Australia, they are known as Berliner or Kitchener and often served in cafes. Popular variants include custard-filled doughnuts, and more recently Nutella-filled doughnuts.


title: Doughnut

text: Mobile vans that serve doughnuts, traditional or jam, are often seen at spectator events, markets, carnivals and fetes, and by the roadside near high-traffic areas like airports and the car parks of large shopping centres. Traditional cinnamon doughnuts are readily available in Australia from specialized retailers and convenience stores. Doughnuts are a popular choice for schools and other not-for-profit groups to cook and sell as a fundraiser.


title: Doughnut

text: In New Zealand, the doughnut is a popular food snack available in corner dairies. They are in the form of a long sweet bread roll with a deep cut down its long axis. In this cut is placed a long dollop of sweetened clotted cream and on top of this is a spot of strawberry jam. Doughnuts are of two varieties: fresh cream or mock cream. The rounded variety is widely available as well.


title: Doughnut

text: In Brazil, bakeries, grocery stores and pastry shops sell ball-shaped doughnuts popularly known as "sonhos" (lit. dreams). The dessert was brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonizers that had contact with Dutch and German traders. They are the equivalent of nowadays "bolas de Berlim" (lit. balls of Berlin) in Portugal, but the traditional Portuguese yellow cream was substituted by local dairy and fruit products. They are made of a special type of bread filled with "goiabada" (guava jelly) or milk cream, and covered by white sugar.


title: Doughnut

text: The "Berlin" (plural "Berlines") doughnut is popular in Chile because of the large German community. It may be filled with jam or with "manjar", the Chilean version of "dulce de leche".


title: Doughnut

text: Peruvian cuisine includes picarones which are doughnut-shaped fritters made with a squash and sweet potato base. These snacks are almost always served with a drizzle of sweet molasses-based sauce.


title: Doughnut

text: In South Africa, an Afrikaans variation known as the "koeksister" is popular. Another variation, similar in name, is the Cape Malay "koesister" being soaked in a spiced syrup and coated in coconut. It has a texture similar to more traditional doughnuts as opposed to the Afrikaans variety. A further variation is the "vetkoek", which is also dough deep fried in oil. It is served with mince, syrup, honey or jam.


title: Doughnut

text: The doughnut has made an appearance in popular culture, particularly in the United States and Australia. References extend to objects or actions that are doughnut-shaped.


title: Doughnut

text: In film, the doughnut has inspired "Dora's Dunking Doughnuts" (1933), "The Doughnuts" (1963) and . In video games, the doughnut has appeared in games like "The Simpsons Game" and "Donut Dilemma". In the cartoon "Mucha Lucha", there are four things that make up the code of mask wrestling: honor, family, tradition, and doughnuts. Also, in the television sitcom "The Simpsons", Homer Simpson's love affair with doughnuts is a prominent ongoing joke as well as the focal point of more than a few episodes. There is also a children's book "Arnie the Doughnut" and music albums "The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse".


title: Doughnut

text: In films, TV shows, and other popular culture references, police officers are associated with doughnuts, depicted as enjoying them during their coffee break or office hours. This cliché has been parodied in the film "", where Officer Zed is instructing new recruits how to "properly" consume their doughnuts with coffee. It is also parodied in the television series "Twin Peaks", where the police station is always in large supply. In the video game "Neuromancer", there is a "Donut World" shop, where only policemen are allowed. During a citywide "lockdown" after the Boston Marathon bombing, a handful of selected Dunkin' Donuts locations were ordered to remain open to serve police and first responders despite the closing of the vast majority of city businesses.


title: Doughnut

text: Cops & Doughnuts, a doughnut shop in Clare, Michigan, is notable for being owned and operated by current and former members of the city's police force.


title: Doughnut

text: Tim Hortons is the most popular Canadian doughnut and coffee franchise, and one of the most successful quick service restaurants in the country. In the Second City Television sketch comedy "The Great White North" featuring the fictional stereotypically Canadian brothers Bob and Doug MacKenzie (and in their film "Strange Brew"), doughnuts play a role in the duo's comedy.


title: Doughnut

text: Donut King is Australia's largest retailer of doughnuts. A Guinness Book of Records largest doughnut made up of 90,000 individual doughnuts was set in Sydney in 2007 as part of a celebration for the release of "The Simpsons Movie".


title: Doughnut

text: Per capita, Canadians consume the most doughnuts, and Canada has the most doughnut stores per capita.


title: Doughnut

text: In the US, especially in Southern California, fresh doughnuts sold by the dozen at local doughnut shops are typically packaged in generic pink boxes. This phenomenon has been attributed to Ted Ngoy and Ning Yen, refugees of the Cambodian genocide who began to transform the local doughnut shop industry in 1976. They proved so adept at the business and in training fellow Chinese Cambodian refugees to follow suit that these local doughnut shops soon dominated native franchises such as Winchell's Donuts. Ngoy and Yen allegedly planned to purchase boxes of a lucky red color rather than the standard white, but settled on a leftover pink stock because of its lower cost.


title: Doughnut

text: In the mid-1970s, pink doughnut boxes were already a common sight in the eastern and midwestern United States, due to the fact that Dunkin' Donuts used a solid pink color for its boxes at that time. (It switched to a different box design sometime after 1975.) But the chain did not begin to establish a major presence in California until the 2010s.


title: Doughnut

text: Owing to the success of Ngoy and Yen's business, the color soon became a recognizable standard in California. Due to the locality of Hollywood, the pink boxes frequently appeared as film and television props and were thus transmitted into popular culture.


title: Doughnut

text: Within the United States, the Providence metropolitan area was cited as having the most doughnut shops per capita (25.3 doughnut shops per 100,000 people) as of January 13, 2010. National Doughnut Day celebrates the doughnut's history and role in popular culture. There is a race in Staunton, Illinois, featuring doughnuts, called the Tour de Donut.


title: Doughnut

text: National Doughnut Day, also known as National Donut Day, celebrated in the United States of America, is on the first Friday of June each year, succeeding the Doughnut Day event created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor those of their members who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. About 250 Salvation Army volunteers went to France. Because of the difficulties of providing freshly baked goods from huts established in abandoned buildings near the front lines, the two Salvation Army volunteers (Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance) came up with the idea of providing doughnuts. These are reported to have been an "instant hit", and "soon many soldiers were visiting The Salvation Army huts". Margaret Sheldon wrote of one busy day: "Today I made 22 pies, 300 doughnuts, 700 cups of coffee."


title: Coccinellidae

text: Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they are not true bugs. Many of the species have conspicuous aposematic colours and patterns, such as red with black spots, that warn potential predators that they are distasteful.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The majority of the more than 6,000 described species are generally considered beneficial insects, because many prey on herbivorous hemipterans such as aphids or scale insects, which are agricultural pests. Many coccinellids lay their eggs directly in aphid and scale insect colonies, ensuring their larvae have an immediate food source. However, some species such as the herbivorous Mexican bean beetle are agricultural pests.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The name "coccinellids", created by Pierre André Latreille, is derived from the Latin word "coccineus" meaning "scarlet". The name "ladybird" originated in Britain where the insects became known as "Our Lady's bird" or the Lady beetle. Mary (Our Lady) was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early paintings, and the spots of the seven-spot ladybird (the most common in Europe) were said to symbolise her seven joys and seven sorrows. In the United States, the name was popularly adapted to "ladybug". Common names in some other European languages share associations; for example, the German name "Marienkäfer" translates to Marybeetle or ladybeetle. Entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles to avoid confusion with the true bugs.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Most coccinellids have round to elliptical, dome-shaped bodies with six short legs. They are often conspicuously coloured yellow, orange, or red with small black spots on their wing covers, with black legs, heads and antennae. There is, however, great variation in these colour patterns. For example, a minority of species, such as "Vibidia duodecimguttata", a twelve-spotted species, have whitish spots on a brown background. Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 6,000 species described.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The Coccinellidae are sparsely preserved in the fossil record. Although molecular clock estimates have placed their origin in the Cretaceous, the oldest fossils of the group are known from the Oise amber of France, dating to the Early Eocene (Ypresian) around 53 million years ago, which belong to the extant genera "Rhyzobius" and "Nephus". The greatest number of fossils comes from the younger Eocene Baltic amber, including members of the extant genera "Serangium" and "Rhyzobius" as well as extinct genera belonging to the tribes Microweiseini ("Baltosidis") and Sticholotidini ("Electrolotis").


title: Coccinellidae

text: The Coccinellidae are within the superfamily Coccinelloidea, which in turn is part of the infraorder Cucujiformia, a group containing most of the plant-eating beetles. The ladybirds form the majority of the species in the Coccinelloidea; many of the rest are small bark beetles. The Cleroidea, a superfamily of mainly hairy beetles with soft elytra, is the sister group to the Coccinelloidea.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The internal phylogeny of the Coccinellidae has been studied using gene sampling across many species by LiHeng and colleagues in 2021. It identified three subfamilies including one newly-identified, the Monocoryninae. All three subfamilies were strongly supported, but the study noted that at lower classification levels, while the tribes are mostly monophyletic, their relationships are only weakly supported. The study suggests that the crown group appeared some 143 Mya in the Early Cretaceous, and that the group diversified rapidly during the Late Cretaceous, perhaps because the growth in diversity of angiosperm plants then encouraged the radiation of Sternorrhyncha such as aphids on which ladybirds could feed.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Predatory ladybirds are usually found on plants which harbour their prey. They lay their eggs near their prey, to increase the likelihood the larvae will find food easily. In "Harmonia axyridis", eggs hatch in three to four days from clutches numbering from a few to several dozen. The larvae pass through four instars, over a period of 10 to 14 days, the time taken depending on resource availability, after which pupation occurs. After a teneral period of several days, the adults become reproductively active and are able to reproduce again later, although they may become reproductively quiescent if they emerge late in the season. Total life span is one to two years on average.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Most species overwinter as adults in diapause, aggregating on the south sides of large objects such as trees or houses during the winter months, and dispersing in response to increasing day length in the spring.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Coccinellids are best known as predators of Sternorrhyncha such as aphids and scale insects, but the range of prey species that various Coccinellidae may attack is much wider. A genus of small black ladybirds, "Stethorus", predates non-Sternorrhyncha; they specialise in mites as prey, notably "Tetranychus" spider mites. "Stethorus" species accordingly are important in biological control on many fruit crops.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Several genera feed on various insects or their eggs; for example, "Coleomegilla" species are significant predators of the eggs and larvae of moths such as "Spodoptera" and the Plutellidae. Larvae and eggs of ladybirds, either their own or of other species, can also be an important food resource when alternative prey are scarce. The Coccinellidae used to be regarded as purely carnivorous, but they are far more omnivorous than previously thought, both as a family and in individual species; examination of gut contents of apparently specialist predators commonly yield residues of pollen and other plant materials. Most predatory coccinellids include other items in their diets, such as honeydew, pollen, plant sap, nectar, and fungi.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Certain species lay extra infertile trophic eggs with the fertile eggs, providing a backup food source for the larvae when they hatch. The ratio of infertile to fertile eggs increases with scarcity of food at the time of egg laying.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The main predators of ladybugs are birds, but they are also the prey of frogs, wasps, spiders, and dragonflies. The bright aposematic colours of many coccinellids discourage potential predators, warning of their toxicity. Their haemolymph contains toxic alkaloids, most commonly polyazamacrolides and polyamines, as well as foul-smelling pyrazines. Some 50 types of alkaloids have been identified in ladybirds. When disturbed, ladybirds further defend themselves with reflex bleeding, exuding droplets of "blood" from their tibio-femoral (knee) joints, effectively presenting predators with a sample of their toxic and bitter body fluid. Changing environmental conditions and invasive species can cause rapid changes in ladybird abundance, as has been documented in the British Isles.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The larva of the vedalia ladybird "Rodolia cardinalis" is a specialist predator on a few species of Monophlebidae, in particular the cottony cushion scale "Icerya purchasi". It was introduced to California in 1887 from Australia, to protect citrus trees from cottony cushion scale. The project was markedly successful, making it "a textbook example of the great potential of classical biological control as a tactic for suppressing invasive pests." The vedalia beetle was then used in 29 countries, again with success. This led to many further attempts to use ladybird species against pests. Around 179 ladybird species were deliberately introduced to North America in the 20th century, of which only 18 became established. Further, establishment does not guarantee effective biological control of the target species. Thus, the vedalia beetle's success looks exceptional compared to the Coccinellidae as a whole; reasons for this include its high prey specificity, short generation time, efficient discovery of host patches, and larval development completed on a single host insect.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Some species are voracious specialist predators, making them valuable as agents of biological control, at least when rapid impact is required, as with sudden outbreaks of aphids on crop plants. However, since many prey are transient or seasonal, high specificity and voracity can equally be a disadvantage. Ladybird species vary in specificity; those that are dominant in specific communities are often rather generalist in their diet. Species that are able to multiply quickly in response to aphid outbreaks are mostly generalists, enabling them to survive on other prey while aphids are scarce. The variability of ladybird responses to prey has made finding suitable species for use as biological control agents difficult; out of 155 deliberate introductions meant to control aphids by the year 2000, only one was deemed to be "substantially successful".


title: Coccinellidae

text: "Harmonia axyridis" (the multicoloured Asian lady beetle or harlequin ladybird) was introduced into North America from Asia in 1979 to control aphids, but it is now the most common species, outcompeting many of the native species. It has become a domestic and agricultural pest in some regions, and gives cause for ecological concern. It has similarly arrived in South Africa, where it has proved variously unwelcome, perhaps most prominently in vine-related crops. The populations in South Africa and South America originated independently from eastern North America. The population in Europe originated partly from eastern North America, and partly from deliberate introduction as a biological control agent in 1982. It has since spread to much of western Europe, reaching the UK in 2004.


title: Coccinellidae

text: "Coccinella septempunctata", another introduced species in North America, similarly outcompetes and displaces native coccinellids.


title: Coccinellidae

text: In North America, coccinellids usually begin to appear indoors in the autumn when they leave their summer feeding sites in fields, forests, and yards and search out places to spend the winter. Typically, when temperatures warm to the mid-60s °F (around 18 °C) in the late afternoon, following a period of cooler weather, they swarm onto or into buildings illuminated by the sun. Swarms of the insects fly to buildings near fields or woods in September through November depending on weather conditions. After an abnormally long period of hot, dry weather in the summer of 1976 in the UK, a marked increase in the aphid population was followed by a "plague" of ladybirds, with many reports of people being bitten as the supply of aphids dwindled.


title: Coccinellidae

text: The presence of coccinellids in grape harvests can cause ladybird taint in wines produced from the grapes.


title: Coccinellidae

text: Ladybirds have long been of interest to children. They once had many regional names in English, such as variations on Bishop-Barnaby (Norfolk and Suffolk dialect) – Barnabee, Burnabee, the Bishop-that-burneth, and bishy bishy barnabee. The etymology is unclear, but it may be from St. Barnabas's feast in June, when the insect appears, or a corruption of "Bishop-that-burneth", from the fiery elytra of the beetles. In the 17th century, they were sometimes named "ladycows".


title: Coccinellidae

text: This poem has its counterpart in German as "Marienwürmchen", collected in "Des Knaben Wunderhorn", and set to music by Robert Schumann as Op. 79, No. 13, and a Polish nursery rhyme, "Little Ladybirds' Anthem", of which a part ("fly to the sky, little ladybird, bring me a piece of bread") became a saying.


title: Coccinellidae

text: In Christian areas, they are often associated with the Virgin Mary, and the name that the insect bears in the various languages of Europe corresponds to this. Although historically many European languages referenced Freyja, the fertility goddess of Norse mythology, in the names, the Virgin Mary has now largely supplanted her as the "Lady", so that, for example, "freyjuhœna" (Old Norse) and "Frouehenge" have been changed into "Mariehone" in Danish, "marihøne" in Norwegian and "Marienkäfer" in German. In Swedish it is "Maria Nyckelpiga", Mary the key-maid (who holds the key to heaven). Sometimes, the insect is referred to as belonging directly to God, with Irish "bóín Dé", Polish "boża krówka", Russian божья коровка ["bozhya korovka"], and Spanish "Vaquilla de Dios", all meaning 'God's [little] cow'.