[merlinxyz]

If one consumes one tablet of sodium bicarbonate and one tablet of betaine hydrochloride, is the result in the gut the combining of the two and the formation of sodium hydrochloride (bleach)?

[wildfyr]

Bleach is hypochlorite, a different molecule altogether than chloride.

So, no.

[merlinxyz]

Bleach is hypochlorite, a different molecule altogether than chloride.

So, no.

I'll take your word for it.  A number of websites on the internet are stating that sodium hydrochloride and sodium hypochlorite are one and the same. https://www.reference.com/science/sodium-hydrochloride-44e4ba8dcaf72f5c  Are there any other names that "sodium hydrochloride" goes by that would be familiar to the general public?  Thanks!

[wildfyr]

Those are typos or misunderstandings I think. Sodium hydrochloride would be NaHCl, an unusual divalent chlorine species. Hypo and hydro have entirely different meanings, Hydro implies the presence of a hydrogen, hypo tells us the oxidation state (+1) and the "ite" tells us its bonded to oxygen. Bleach aka sodium hypochlorite is NaOCl.

A look at the structure of betaine hydrochloride (http://www.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.11058.html) shows that it is a merely a chloride salt of an quaternary ammonium and carboxylic acid. No hypochlorite involved.

Normally such salts would simply be called "chlorides" as in "tetramethylammonium chloride." However in this case its important to specify that the carboxylic acid is in its protonated form, so a "hydro" is included in the name. Otherwise it would be assumed to be in what is known as a "zwitterionic" form, that is, having both a positive and negative charge simultaneously on one molecule.