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Specialty Chemistry Forums => Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Forum => Topic started by: eggs on April 08, 2014, 08:33:55 AM

Title: Remove calcium from calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate
Post by: eggs on April 08, 2014, 08:33:55 AM
Does anyone know of a way to separate the calcium part from calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (calcium HMB) so that we would be left with β-Hydroxy β-methylbutyric acid (HMB free acid)?

Calcium HMB is a sport supplement, but recent research has shown that the free acid form of HMB is superior. Therefore I would like to find out if it's possible for a home chemist to perform the conversion.

To be clear, to go from this:

(https://www.chemicalforums.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F2%2F27%2FCalcium_hydroxymethylbutyrate_skeletal.svg%2F400px-Calcium_hydroxymethylbutyrate_skeletal.svg.png&hash=15cccab6674a56d6c7259c85f45663b0b1a38b38)
Calcium 3-hydroxy-3-methylbutyrate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate

to this:

(https://www.chemicalforums.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F8%2F8c%2FHydroxymethylbutyric_acid.png%2F300px-Hydroxymethylbutyric_acid.png&hash=7149bd7e5cd4d6f5f1b28f4aff74252bc66bab62)
3-hydroxy-3-methylbutanoic acid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta-Hydroxy_beta-methylbutyric_acid

It was suggested to me that citric acid might be used, but I don't have a clue if that would work.

Can anyone help?
Title: Re: Remove calcium from calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate
Post by: Borek on April 08, 2014, 09:10:43 AM
Perfectly doable, but at home you will not have a proper quality control.

Please read the forum rules (http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=65859.0).

Topic locked.