Calcium tartrate, exactly calcium L-tartrate, is a byproduct of the wine industry, prepared from wine fermentation dregs.[1][2][3] It is the calcium salt of L-tartaric acid, an acid most commonly found in grapes.[4] Its solubility decreases with lower temperature, which results in the forming of whitish (in red wine often reddish) crystalline clusters as it precipitates. As E number E354, it finds use as a food preservative and acidity regulator. Like tartaric acid, calcium tartrate has two asymmetric carbons, hence it has two chiral isomers and a non-chiral isomer (meso-form). Most calcium tartrate of biological origin is the chiral levorotatory (–) isomer.

References

  1. ^ Zoecklein, Bruce; Fugelsang, Kenneth C.; Gump, Barry H.; Nury, Fred S. (2013-11-09). Wine Analysis and Production. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-4757-6967-8.
  2. ^ Roeber, Eugene Franz; Parmelee, Howard Coon (1915). Metallurgical & Chemical Engineering. Electrochemical Publishing Company. p. 616.
  3. ^ Ribéreau-Gayon, Pascal; Glories, Yves; Maujean, Alain; Dubourdieu, Denis (2006-05-01). Handbook of Enology, Volume 2: The Chemistry of Wine - Stabilization and Treatments. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-470-01038-9.
  4. ^ "Calcium tartrate". InXight Drugs. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.