165. GALLOTANNIC ACID. 150 



.irtially precipitated from aqueous solution by chloride of 

 sodium, and by acid sulphite of potassium. The aqueous or 

 alcoholic solution turns dark cherry-red when warmed with 

 hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, and deposits red flocks ; bichromate 

 of potassium produces a dark colouration and brown precipitate ; 

 with ferric chloride it strikes a green, or, if the solution is am- 

 moniacal, a violet colour ; it is not precipitated by tartar emetic. 

 \ i method is known by which it can be accurately estimated. 



Amongst the glucosidal tannins those may be mentioned first 

 which, when boiled with dilute acids, yield, in addition to glucose, 

 crystal-line decomposition-products. The most important of them 

 is 



Gallotannic add, the decomposition-product of which, gallic 

 acid, has been already alluded to ( 151). Its quantitative esti- 

 mation is comparatively easy, as fairly accurate results can be 

 obtained both volumetrically by titration with gelatine-solution 

 or with permanganate of potassium, and gravimetrically by pre- 

 cipitation as tin (stannous), copper, or lead-salt. A few sources 

 of error must, however, be here alluded to. In the first place, 

 if the tannic acid has been extracted by water, mucilage and 

 gallic acid may also have passed into solution ; the latter is pre- 

 cipitable by gelatine in the presence of mucilage. That is avoided 

 by extracting with spirit. In the second place, gallic acid, as 

 already pointed out, acts upon permanganate of potassium. In 

 titrating with a solution of that substance, therefore, either the 

 gallic acid must be removed by shaking with ether, or, as sug- 

 gested by Lowenthal, and mentioned in 52, 53, two estima- 

 tions must be made, the one before, the other after, precipitating 

 the tannic acid with gelatine, the calculations being made from 

 the difference. In precipitating with acetate of lead or copper 

 (but not with ammonio-chloride of tin), gallic acid is also partially 

 carried down, and should therefore be previously removed. From 

 a solution containing about 2 per cent, of tannin the tin precipi- 

 tate will contain 1977 to 1979 per cent, of stannous oxide, the 

 'OOO per cent, of oxide of lead, and the copper 38*28 per 

 cent, of oxide of copper. 



Hammer's method ( 52, xi.) may, as already stated, be best 

 applied to the estimation of gallo-tannic acid. 



The tannins of sumach, 1 knoppern galls, valonia and algaro- 



1 Compare Giinther, 'Beitr. zurKenntn. der im Sumach, etc., vork. Gerbs./ 

 Di.ss. Dorpat, 1871 (Journ. Chem. Soc. xxiv. 762) ; Loewe, Zeitschr. f. anal. 



