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Summative Project: Compound Building Assignment

Tartaric Tales: Constructing The Complex Masterpiece

Tartaric Acid

Aiden Stanley

SCH4UI-001

May 9th, 2024

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The History of Tartaric Acid

Tartaric acid has been used in winemaking for a very long time. Back in ancient times, especially in places where they grew lots of grapes and made a lot of wine, people started to notice these tiny crystals forming in their wine barrels or on the inside of their wine containers. Around the 8th century, a scientist named Jabir ibn Hayyan from Persia isolated tartaric acid by itself. But it wasn't until the late 1700s that modern scientists really started to figure out what tartaric acid really was. “The chemical process for extraction was developed in 1769 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele” (Wikipedia, 2024). He took tartaric acid out of something called cream of tartar, which is a type of chemical made from potassium. He saw that when he mixed tartar with water and calcium hydroxide, a white, chunky thing had formed. He called this calcium tartrate. Later, some French chemists named Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac also helped us understand tartaric acid better. Lavoisier said it was an organic acid, and Gay-Lussac figured out its chemical structure. In the middle of the 1800s, a scientist named Louis Pasteur added a lot to what we knew about tartaric acid. He found out that in wine, tartaric acid only comes in two different forms that spin light in different ways. This helped us learn about chirality and stereochemistry.

The Important Uses of Tartaric Acid

Tartaric acid is used today in many industries. It is mainly used in food and beverages as an acidulant and flavoring agent, in pharmaceuticals, and in the manufacturing of certain materials. It is also used in creaming tartar, baking powder, and other baking products. Tartaric acid is used in the food business to make jams, fruit juices and concentrates, pickles, and soft drinks. It also has many other uses “in cleaning and polishing metals, in calico printing, in wool dyeing, and in certain photographic printing and development processes” (Brown, 2024). In making different construction materials, tartaric acid is used as a retarding agent in gypsum, Portland, and aluminate cement. It’s used for setting regulators in ternary binder systems as well. In the pharmaceutical industry, tartaric acid is used in formulations for antibiotics, effervescent powders and tablets, drugs for heart diseases, and therapeutic compounds. It is also known to improve the taste of oral medications when combined with citric acid. Of all the uses of tartaric acid, the most common are the following: It is used in the tanning of leather and in candies. In its cream form, it is used as a stabilizer in food. It is one of the important acids in wine. “The concentration of tartaric acid tends not to decline markedly during grape ripening, although production ceases. In addition, tartaric acid is metabolized by a few microbes. Thus, it is usually the preferred acid added to increase the acidity of high-pH wines” (Jackson, 2020). Therefore, it is a very important addition for wine. Also, tartaric acid is used in foods to give them a sour taste. It is sometimes used to induce vomiting, and finally, it is used to make silver mirrors. It has many uses for all kinds of things all over the world!

Interesting Facts About Tartaric Acid

1. Grapes, cranberries, bananas, prickly pears, apricots, apples, avocados, and tamarinds contain natural tartaric acid.
2. Tartaric acid crystals are colourless and odourless with an acidic flavour.
3. Tartaric acid may be most immediately recognizable to wine drinkers as the source of "wine diamonds."
4. Tartaric acid aids digestion, improving intestinal functions.
5. Only consume in moderation, since overconsumption can lead to gastric problems.
6. Tartaric acid is tongue-tingling and truly tart.
7. Tartaric acid is strong and stable.
8. Tartaric acid can be used for skincare products as it makes you more radiant, exfoliates, and improves your skin texture.

How Tartaric Acid is Produced

Natural Production

Natural sources of tartaric acid include “tamarind, grapes, bananas, apples, Gymnema sylvestre, and some citrus fruits” (Nabavi, 2022). However, “tartaric acid is a white crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many plants, most notably in grapes” (NIH, n.d.). Its salt, potassium bitartrate, also referred to as cream of tartar, forms naturally during fermentation. Tartaric acid is derived from the fermentation by-products of wine, along with a few other salts, including cream of tartar (potassium hydrogen tartrate) and Rochelle salt (potassium sodium tartrate). After heating and neutralizing the lees, or sediments, and other fermentation waste products with calcium hydroxide, the precipitated calcium tartrate is processed with sulfuric acid to yield free tartaric acid. By neutralizing the crude crystalline potassium acid salt, known as argol, with sodium carbonate, Rochelle salt is created.

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