Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: beheada on May 15, 2006, 11:12:22 AM
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Someone told me that when working with plants, like doing an acidic extract of a plant, if you use calcium ascorbate in the acidic mixture, it will precipitate tannins and oils so that your product will inevitably be that much cleaner. So a couple of questions on that note:
What is calcium ascorbate supposed to be used for? I found some information saying it is the calcium salt of ascorbic acid which is "vitamin C"... so maybe it is a vitamin itself? Is there a way to convert vitamin C to ascorbate calcium that's not too complicated?
Also, could anyone explain why/how the calcium ascorbate helps precipitate the gunk (tannin/oils etc) in plant matter?
I've found places where you can order the calcium ascorbate straight... but I was just interested in anyone knew a process for converting C to AC.
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You could try dissolving Ca metal (or CaO, or Ca(OH)2) in ascorbic acid solution. Not sure how well that really works but it seems like it should.
I don't think the ascorbate part is the important one, rather the calcium, which precipitates tannates, but not necessarily oils. I *am* interested if anybody knows this better, I have also heard of adding calcium to plant extracts.
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Taken from a thread on a madsci.org:
"According to the label on the containers, Sodium Ascorbate is made by combining Ascorbic Acid with Sodium Bicarbonate (aka Baking Soda) Calcium Ascorbate is made by combining Ascorbic Acid with Calcium Carbonate (aka ground limestone)..."
"2) Ascorbic acid, being monobasic, would take one equivalent of base to neutralize. I leave it to you to calculate the proportions :) The process is most probably easy to set up at home, and would include mixing ascorbic acid and sodium bicarbonate solutions, and drinking or evaporating the resulting salt solution. Long storage of salts is not recommended though..."
So I take it from this that in order to get to Calcium Ascorbate you would combine equimolar solutions of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and Calcium Carbonate (ground limestone, CaCO3) then evaporate them?
I've yet to find a good source on the web which actually explains the precipitation of tannins, but I'm still looking.
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Taken from a thread on a madsci.org:
"According to the label on the containers, Sodium Ascorbate is made by combining Ascorbic Acid with Sodium Bicarbonate (aka Baking Soda) Calcium Ascorbate is made by combining Ascorbic Acid with Calcium Carbonate (aka ground limestone)..."
"2) Ascorbic acid, being monobasic, would take one equivalent of base to neutralize. I leave it to you to calculate the proportions :) The process is most probably easy to set up at home, and would include mixing ascorbic acid and sodium bicarbonate solutions, and drinking or evaporating the resulting salt solution. Long storage of salts is not recommended though..."
So I take it from this that in order to get to Calcium Ascorbate you would combine equimolar solutions of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and Calcium Carbonate (ground limestone, CaCO3) then evaporate them?
I've yet to find a good source on the web which actually explains the precipitation of tannins, but I'm still looking.
that's how you do it. we did this one in class one time i think