idrbur - 5-7-2015 at 08:28
My grand pa told me that when he was young. acid like gallic and benzoic acid are made from natural things like cloves but he is a little confused
between the the material used. So anybody can tell me about right ingredients and the process to make these acid.
I also want to know about some other chemicals that can be made from natural things.
aga - 5-7-2015 at 12:21
Gallic is from oak galls i think.
Someone posted a great thread here about making Ink from it.
Benzoic from bitter almonds.
Boffis - 5-7-2015 at 12:44
Gallic acid was tradition prepared by one of several methods from certain tannins and if you UTFSE you will find several threads related to this. One
of these is the detailed preparation of gallic acid from homebrew winemakers tannin powder by alkali hydrolysis.
If you shop around in craft shops you can sometimes find Catechu. It is used in textile dying and if subjected to the same treatment as the tannin it
yields pyrocatechuic (3,4-dihydrobenzoic acid). Both tannin and catechu are fairly cheap.
Benzoic acid was discovered in the alkali hydrolysis products from gum benzoin. I don't think this process has ever been commercial because gum
benzoin is rather expensive. I tried it once just for fun but separating the products is difficult.
Toluic acid (4-methylbenzoic acid) and toluene were simularly recovered from the pyrolysis products of gum tolu but again I don't think that this was
ever a commercial process. Ferulic acid (3-methoxy-4-hydroxycinnammic acid) can be extract from gum ammoniac and the brown papery skins of onions (the
latter also contains fluorescent Flavins).
Other substances that might be worth investigating for recoverable compounds include the red food colouring from beetroot (sold as betanin) which
contains a 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid group; the accroides resin used by pyrotechnist (no idea whats in this but its cheap); humic acid (I recent
encountered this being sold as a food additive) which is a complex polymeric benzoquinone-aromatic carboxylic acid cocktail (try alkali and a reducing
agent perhaps on this one), abietic acid from pine resin etc etc.
Other compounds extracted commercially from natural materials: morphine, cocaine, strychnine etc.![:D](./images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Check out the older literature and chemistry books; starting with the forum library.
Check out the thread on uric acid from guano too!
Then there are the pigments in madder, logwood, litmus (from various lichens), morin, quercetrin, indigo, brazilwood, and a miriad other.
Then there are the hydrophilic gums that can be hydrolysis to various sugars noteably pentoses and uronic acids. The pentoses can then be converted
into furfuraldehyde. As can glucosamine and chitosine etc extracted from such things as shrimps and prawn "shell".
Where do you stop? Check out Acta Chem Scand journal it free as is the journal of biol chem and the older volumes eg pre 1940 contain vast amounts of
information about natural products such as the extraction and purification of all amino acids from various natural products.
[Edited on 5-7-2015 by Boffis]
aga - 5-7-2015 at 13:47
Check Google/Wiki for other stuff.
Start with Willow and asprin.