[SNELL] MAPLE PRODUCTS 225 



separate the acids precipitated by calcium salts and alcohol (as in the 

 analytical determination of malic acid value) but his results are 

 reserved for corroboration by further experiments. 



Malic acid is probably the leading acid, however. Assuming the 

 four leading bases of the above ash analysis average to be present in 

 the syrup as malates, we derive an average salt content of 1-54 per 

 cent. The equivalent amount of malic acid is 1-00 per cent, which 

 corresponds closely to the average malic acid value obtained by Bryan 

 on 843 samples of syrup and sugar, using the Cowles method of analy- 

 sis, viz. 0-98 per cent malic acid, H2C4H405^ This agreement be- 

 tween two estimates of the amount of malic acid represented in the 

 salts, remarkable as it is, does not exclude the possibility of the 

 presence of a considerable amount of other acids having calcium salts 

 insoluble in 85 per cent alcohol. 



Detection of Adulteration 



Adulteration of maple syrup with refined sugar leaves the sucrose 

 content unchanged but reduce^ the percentage of every non-sugar 

 component. For the detection of such adulteration we are necessarily 

 dependent upon measurements of analytical values based upon the 

 content of one or more of the non-sugar components. Of these com- 

 ponents the salts are the most abundant and it is doubtless upon these 

 that all our current methods are mainly dependent. Table III is a 

 summary of the results which a number of investigators have obtained 

 by applying these methods to syrups and sugars known to be genuine. 

 Table IV gives a comparison of the range of variation which these 

 various analytical values show in genuine maple products. In de- 

 ciding whether a given sample is adulterated with refined sugar or 

 not, the minima of these values are, of course, the significant figures, 

 but in comparing the usefulness of methods, the range of variation 

 of the values in genuine products is important. Other things being 

 equal, that method whose value shows least variation in genuine 

 syrups will be the most useful in detecting adulterations with refined 

 sugar. Judged by this criterion, the conductivity method is shown 

 by Table IV to be superior to any of the others, except the volumetric 

 lead method, to which reference will be made later. This assertion 

 is subject to the qualification that the conductivity results included 

 in the summary have all, or practically all, been obtained upon syrups 

 and sugars of Canadian origin, while those of the ash values, Winton 



1 Bryan, U.S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Chem. Bull 134 (1911) pp. 91-2; U.S. Dept. 

 Agr. Bull. 466 (1917), p. 34. 



