Tartaric acid has been known to winemakers for centuries. However, the chemical process for extraction was developed in 1769 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.[4]
Tartaric acid played an important role in the discovery of chemical chirality. This property of tartaric acid was first observed in 1832 by Jean Baptiste Biot, who observed its ability to rotate polarized light.[5][6]Louis Pasteur continued this research in 1847 by investigating the shapes of sodium ammonium tartrate crystals, which he found to be chiral. By manually sorting the differently shaped crystals, Pasteur was the first to produce a pure sample of levotartaric acid.[7][8][9][10][11]
Naturally occurring form of the acid is dextro tartaric acid orL-(+)-tartaric acid (obsolete name d-tartaric acid). Because it is available naturally, it is cheaper than its enantiomer and the meso isomer. The dextro and levo prefixes are archaic terms.[12] Modern textbooks refer to the natural form as (2R,3R)-tartaric acid (L-(+)-tartaric acid), and its enantiomer as (2S,3S)-tartaric acid (D-(-)-tartaric acid). The meso diastereomer is referred to as (2R,3S)-tartaric acid or (2S,3R)-tartaric acid.
Anhydrous meso tartaric acid form two anhydrous polymorphs: triclinic and orthorhombic.
Monohydrated meso tartaric acid crystallizes as monoclinic and triclinic polymorphys depending on the temperature at which crystallization from aqueous solution occurs.[17]
Tartaric acid in Fehling's solution binds to copper(II) ions, preventing the formation of insoluble hydroxide salts.
DL-tartaric acid (racemic acid) (when in 1:1 ratio)
The L-(+)-tartaric acid isomer of tartaric acid is industrially produced in the largest amounts. It is obtained from lees, a solid byproduct of fermentations. The former byproducts mostly consist of potassium bitartrate (KHC4H4O6). This potassium salt is converted to calcium tartrate (CaC4H4O6) upon treatment with calcium hydroxide "milk of lime" (Ca(OH)2):[20]
In practice, higher yields of calcium tartrate are obtained with the addition of calcium sulfate. Calcium tartrate is then converted to tartaric acid by treating the salt with aqueous sulfuric acid:
A mixture of racemic acid and meso-tartaric acid is formed when dextro-Tartaric acid is heated in water at 165 °C for about 2 days. meso-Tartaric acid can also be prepared from dibromosuccinic acid using silver hydroxide:[21]
L-(+)-tartaric acid, can participate in several reactions. As shown the reaction scheme below, dihydroxymaleic acid is produced upon treatment of L-(+)-tartaric acid with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a ferrous salt.
Tartaric acid is a muscletoxin, which works by inhibiting the production of malic acid, and in high doses causes paralysis and death.[26] The median lethal dose (LD50) is about 7.5 grams/kg for a human, 5.3 grams/kg for rabbits, and 4.4 grams/kg for mice.[27] Given this figure, it would take over 500 g (18 oz) to kill a person weighing 70 kg (150 lb) with 50% probability, so it may be safely included in many foods, especially sour-tasting sweets. As a food additive, tartaric acid is used as an antioxidant with E numberE334; tartrates are other additives serving as antioxidants or emulsifiers.
When cream of tartar is added to water, a suspension results which serves to clean copper coins very well, as the tartrate solution can dissolve the layer of copper(II) oxide present on the surface of the coin. The resulting copper(II)-tartrate complex is easily soluble in water.
Unpurified potassium bitartrate can take on the color of the grape juice from which it was separated.
Tartaric acid may be most immediately recognizable to wine drinkers as the source of "wine diamonds", the small potassium bitartrate crystals that sometimes form spontaneously on the cork or bottom of the bottle. These "tartrates" are harmless, despite sometimes being mistaken for broken glass, and are prevented in many wines through cold stabilization (which is not always preferred since it can change the wine's profile). The tartrates remaining on the inside of aging barrels were at one time a major industrial source of potassium bitartrate.
Tartaric acid plays an important role chemically, lowering the pH of fermenting "must" to a level where many undesirable spoilage bacteria cannot live, and acting as a preservative after fermentation. In the mouth, tartaric acid provides some of the tartness in the wine, although citric and malic acids also play a role.
Tartaric acid and its derivatives have a plethora of uses in the field of pharmaceuticals. For example, it has been used in the production of effervescent salts, in combination with citric acid, to improve the taste of oral medications.[22] The potassium antimonyl derivative of the acid known as tartar emetic is included, in small doses, in cough syrup as an expectorant.
Tartaric acid also has several applications for industrial use. The acid has been observed to chelate metal ions such as calcium and magnesium. Therefore, the acid has served in the farming and metal industries as a chelating agent for complexing micronutrients in soil fertilizer and for cleaning metal surfaces consisting of aluminium, copper, iron, and alloys of these metals, respectively.[20]
While tartaric acid is well-tolerated by humans and lab animals, an April 2021 letter to the editor of JAVMA hypothesized that the tartaric acid in grapes could be the cause of grape and raisin toxicity in dogs.[30]
^Retzius, Anders Jahan (1770) "Försök med vinsten och dess syra" (Experiments with cream of tartar and its acid), Kungliga Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences), 31 : 207–213. From p. 209:"§. 6. Dessa försök omtalte jag för Hr. Carl Wilhelm Scheele (en snabb och lårgirug Pharmaciæ Studiosus) … " (§. 6. I mention these experiments on behalf of Mr. Carl Wilhelm Scheele (a quick and studious student of pharmacology) … )
^Biot (1835) "Mémoire sur la polarization circulaire et sur ses applications à la chimie organique" (Memoir on circular polarization and on its applications to organic chemistry), Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences de l'Institut, 2nd series, 13 : 39–175. That tartaric acid (acide tartarique cristallisé) rotates plane-polarized light is shown in Table G following p. 168. (Note: This article was read to the French Royal Academy of Sciences on 1832 November 5.)
^Wegenast, CA (2022). "Acute kidney injury in dogs following ingestion of cream of tartar and tamarinds and the connection to tartaric acid as the proposed toxic principle in grapes and raisins". J Vet Emerg Crit Care. 32 (6): 812–816. doi:10.1111/vec.13234. PMID35869755. S2CID250989489.
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