KITASATO FLASK: CHARACTERISTICS, USES AND HISTORY - CHEMISTRY - 2025

The kitasato flask is a fairly everyday laboratory equipment. It consists of a thick glass bottle with a cone-shaped structure, with an elongated neck and a thin tube at the top and side.

This flask was invented by the Japanese doctor and bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, who was a widely influential personality in the medical and research fields, as he is credited with various discoveries of cures for chronic infectious diseases.

Kitasato flask

The kitasato flask has different functions in the scientific field. Its main use has to do with the separation of compounds that have solid, liquid and gaseous substances.

Through the kitasate flask, it is possible to isolate the gaseous substances from the others that accompany it in a given compound. This is thanks to the small and thin tube that is located in the neck of said flask.

Who was Shibasaburo Kitasato?

In addition to the invention of the kitasato flask, Shibasaburo Kitasato is credited with several discoveries that changed the conception of certain serious infectious diseases that affected many people in his time.

His most outstanding investigations were on tetanus, bubonic plague and dysentery.

Shibasaburo Kisakato was born in 1852. He entered medical school and finished his studies in 1883. Two years later he traveled to Berlin, where he worked at the institute of the German physician and microbiologist Robert Koch.

In the late 1890s, Kisakato returned to Japan and created an institute dedicated to the research of infectious diseases. Later, he also created a sanatorium called Yojoen, which was aimed at people infected with tuberculosis.

In 1914 Kisakato founded the Kisakato Institute, which he directed until his death. During his life, Kisakato also devoted himself to studying dysentery, leprosy, and tuberculosis.

Main findings

One of the important findings attributed to Kitasato is the discovery of a serum that was capable of neutralizing tetanus disease, an infectious disease that occurs when there are infected wounds and that can attack the body's nervous system. In this research he participated together with the German bacteriologist Emil Behring.

Another very important finding by Kisakato was the discovery of the microorganism that causes the bubonic plague.

As seen, Shibasaburo Kitasato was a remarkable scientist who strongly influenced the effective treatment of infectious diseases that affected millions of people.

Kitasato flask features

Kitasato flask. HaJo88 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The kitasato flask is also known as kitasato, just plain. It is an instrument commonly used in laboratory work.

It is a bottle made of quite thick glass, because it is intended to be used in conditions in which the pressure can vary abruptly.

This flask is characterized by having a cone shape, has an elongated neck and an opening in the upper part of said neck, which is the narrowest area.

Given these characteristics, the kitasato flask is very similar to another flask that bears the Erlenmeyer name.

The main peculiarity that distinguishes the kitasato flask from Erlenmeyer flasks or from other flasks is that it has a tube, also made of glass, located in the lateral area of ​​the narrowest part of the flask.

This tube fulfills interesting functions. Through this it is possible that certain gases can be separated from the compound in which one is working; they can be isolated to be studied separately.

Applications

The kitasato flask is specially designed for doing water related experiments. As mentioned above, the thickness of its structure is prepared to withstand different levels of pressure.

Three experiments that require the kitasato flask for their execution will be described below:

1- Distillation

Distillation is the process by which one seeks to isolate the volatile substance of a compound. That is, the substance that has become a gaseous state after being liquid or solid.

Through distillation it is possible to separate this volatile element from those that are not, and the means by which this is achieved is through the evaporation of said substance, followed by its condensation.

2- Displacement of volumes

This experiment has to do with identifying the exact volume of an impermeable object through observing its behavior within a liquid. This method is ideal for determining the volume of irregular objects.

It can be said that the volume of an object will be equal to the space it occupies. Then, when an object is immersed in water, it will displace the water, which will occupy the space corresponding to the object.

3- Vacuum filtration

Through this method it is sought to separate the mixtures that contain solid and liquid elements. In this case, a vacuum pump is used together with another laboratory instrument called a Büchner funnel, which is fitted with a filter. The Büchner funnel is located on top of the kitasato flask.

This technique is used when you want to recover the solid substance of the compound, especially if the compound is viscous, or if the solid elements are very small.

Building a vacuum in a container will greatly increase the rate at which a substance is filtered.

Advantages of using the kitasato flask

- The most obvious advantage is that, thanks to the detachment tube, it allows to isolate gaseous substances from compounds in which they are mixed with liquid and / or solid elements.

- Unlike the Florentine flask, whose structure is rounded, the kitasato flask allows better handling of the substance to be worked on, since it is possible to manipulate it and leave the flask at rest without running the risk of spilling the compound.

- The kitasate flask also provides an advantage in handling liquid substances. The narrow edge of its upper opening allows the liquid substance to be kept as pure as possible, avoiding contamination by external agents, or even evaporation of the fluid.

The two small nozzles that characterize the structure can be easily covered by using individual caps, or even small cottons.

- Inside the kitasato flask it is possible to mix and shake solutions in a comfortable and safer way than if, for example, a beaker is used, which is characterized by a much wider mouth that favors spillage.

References

1. "Kitasato Shibasaburo" in Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved on September 13, 2017 from Encyclopedia Britannica: britannica.com
2. "Kitasato, Shibasaburo" (2008) in Encyclopedia. Retrieved on September 13, 2017 from Encyclopedia: encyclopedia.com
3. Carter, F. "Shibasaburo Kitasato" (July 1931) in National Center of Biotechnology Information. Retrieved on September 13, 2017 from the National Center of Biotechnology Information: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
4. "Kitasato" in EcuRed. Retrieved on September 13, 2017 from EcuRed: ecured.cu
5. Lederman, W. "A personal history of bacteria" (2007) in Google Books. Retrieved on September 13, 2017 from Google Books: books.google.co.ve
6. "Vacuum filtration" at the University of Barcelona. Retrieved on September 13, 2017 from the University of Barcelona: ub.edu.