As the countdown to Christmas begins, what will you do if three wise men gift you myrrh this year?
Traditionally, myrrh is used in rituals, cosmetics and medicines, however, a new paper published in RSC Advances shows that it can also be used to prevent steel corrosion.
Drying out myrrh gum allows it to be ground into a fine powder and purified into a concentrated extract. The authors added different concentrations of this myrrh extract to samples of stainless steel in hydrochloric acid, a highly corrosive environment, at a range of temperatures from 25 and 55 °C.
To monitor the corrosion process, the steel weight was measured before and after 24 hours in the acid solution. The results showed that:
- Adding myrrh prevented up to 93.6% of corrosion
- The inhibition efficiency increased at higher myrrh concentrations and temperatures
Computational simulations showed that the myrrh particles formed a smooth, uniform, protective layer on the surface of the stainless steel, preventing the corrosion reaction.
Why does this matter?
Corrosion of steel structures impacts many industries, resulting in financial losses and safety risks. Existing corrosion inhibitors can be hazardous to the environment. As myrrh extract is a natural product, this work shows that is an effective corrosion inhibitor, offering a more sustainable, green and cost-effective approach to prevent steel rusting.
Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5RA07138K from the Royal Society of Chemistry
Arafat Toghan, M. Fakeeh, Ahmed Fawzy and Hend S. Gadow, Identification of interaction, surface species and anticorrosion potency for adsorption of myrrh extract on 330 stainless steel in 1 M HCl solution, RSC Adv., 2025,15, 42272-42298