meq100g

The term "meq100g" is a unit of measurement commonly encountered in chemistry and pharmacology. It stands for milliequivalents per 100 grams. This unit is used to express the concentration or quantity of a substance within a given mass of another substance, specifically per 100 grams.

The "meq" or milliequivalent represents a fraction of an equivalent. An equivalent is the amount of a substance that will react with or supply one mole of hydrogen ions (H+) in an acid-base reaction, or one mole of electrons in a redox reaction. The equivalent weight of a substance depends on the specific reaction it is involved in. For ions, it is the molar mass divided by the absolute value of the charge. Milliequivalents are simply one-thousandth of an equivalent.

The "100g" portion indicates that the measurement is normalized to 100 grams of the sample or matrix. This allows for standardized comparison of concentrations across different samples, regardless of their total mass. For example, if a solution contains 50 meq/100g of an electrolyte, it means that for every 100 grams of that solution, there are 50 milliequivalents of the electrolyte present. This unit is particularly useful when dealing with substances that exert a significant biological effect based on their concentration, such as electrolytes in biological fluids or active pharmaceutical ingredients in drug formulations.