Many gardeners here in Canada are currently harvesting their rhubarb to make pies and other desserts. Like cranberries, rhubarb is very sour due to the presence of organic acids. The leaves of the rhubarb plant contain so much oxalic acid that they are toxic. The stalks of the plant contain less oxalic acid and are not toxic (although I would argue that they taste awful). Oxalic acid is used in many cleaning products, so if you are like me and hate the taste of rhubarb, you can still make use of it as a cleaning agent. If you have a very dirty stainless steel pot, you can clean it by simply stewing rhubarb in it. The figure below shows the 1H and 13C NMR spectra of an aqueous extract of rhubarb stocks. The major constituents are organic acids with smaller quantities of sugars. Some of the 13C signals from oxalic, malic and citric acids are labelled.
Scientist - Analytical Chemistry and NMR Spectroscopy | Food and Drug Administration
Scientist - Analytical Chemistry and NMR Spectroscopy | Food and Drug Administration
US - Silver Spring, MD and St. Louis, MO, Basic Requirements for a RG-1320, Chemist:Degree: Possess a degree in physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering that included 30 semester hours in chemistry, supplemented by course work
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07-30-2016 04:57 AM
[U. of Ottawa NMR Facility Blog] NMR and Food Chemistry - Maple Syrup
NMR and Food Chemistry - Maple Syrup
Maple syrup is arguably one of the tastiest traditional Canadian condiments. In honor of Canada Day (July 1), it is appropriate to take a look at this delicious golden treat. The bottom trace of the figure below shows the 600 MHz 1H NMR spectrum of pure Quebec maple syrup dissolved in D2O.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8RCfktaKRGE/V3VrMX_HSoI/AAAAAAAABbY/eILS4Ch0bcwyJWskZ5hiGkRt_IVdOi0wQCLcB/s400/maple.jpg
The spectrum is overwhelmingly dominated by sucrose. Clearly, nature gives us the maple flavor with very low concentration components. The top...
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07-01-2016 03:06 AM
[U. of Ottawa NMR Facility Blog] NMR and Food Chemistry - Coffee
NMR and Food Chemistry - Coffee
Many of us enjoy a hot delicious cup of coffee. Many (not including myself) will even spend a great deal of money and a great deal of their time in a long queue to get it! The coffee snobs will preach about the differences between a freshly brewed cup of java and the lowly cup of instant coffee. Is there really a difference? Spectrum A in the figure below shows the 13C CPMAS NMR spectrum of ground coffee. Among other things, the spectrum consists of resonances from the woody fibers, polysaccharide gums, tannins, alkaloids and aromatic oils. Spectrum B is the...