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Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula KNO3. A naturally occurring mineral source of nitrogen, KNO3 constitutes a critical oxidizing component of black powder gunpowder. In the past it was also used for several kinds of burning fuses, including slow matches.
Since potassium nitrate readily precipitates, urine was a significant source, through various malodorous means, from the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern era through the 19th century.
Its common names include saltpeter (from Medieval Latin sal petrae: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt of Petra"), American English saltpeter, Nitrate of potash, and nitre. The name Chile saltpeter is also applied to sodium nitrate, which, though also used in explosives and fertilizers, is a very different compound.
Description
Potassium nitrate is the oxidizing component of black powder. Before the large-scale industrial fixation of nitrogen through the Haber process, major sources of potassium nitrate were the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the draining of decomposing organic material. Dung-heaps were a particularly common source: ammonia from the decomposition of urea and other nitrogenous materials would undergo bacterial oxidation to produce nitrate.
It was and is also used as a component in some fertilizers. When used by itself as a fertilizer, it has an NPK rating of 13-0-44 (indicating 13%, 0%, and 44% of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, by mass, respectively). Potassium nitrate was once thought to induce impotence, and is still rumored to be in institutional food (such as military fare) as an anaphrodisiac. However, these uses would be ineffective, since potassium nitrate has no such properties.
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