Sorrel, wood

Sauerklee, m, clover sorrel, wood sorrel, -salz, n, salt of sorrel (potassium hydrogen oxalate), -akurc, /. oxalic acid. 

SM.uerling, m. acidulous mineral water, sparkling mineral water sparkling mineral spring sour wine , cheese from sour milk clover sorrel, wood sorrel. 

Crystallizes from water in large colourless prisms containing 2H2O. It is poisonous, causing paralysis of the nervous system m.p. 101 C (hydrate), 189°C (anhydrous), sublimes 157°C. It occurs as the free acid in beet leaves, and as potassium hydrogen oxalate in wood sorrel and rhubarb. Commercially, oxalic acid is made from sodium methanoate. This is obtained from anhydrous NaOH with CO at 150-200°C and 7-10 atm. At lower pressure sodium oxalate formed from the sodium salt the acid is readily liberated by sulphuric acid. Oxalic acid is also obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of citric acid and by the oxidation of carbohydrates with nitric acid in presence of V2O5. 

Hasen-klee, m. rabbit-foot clover, hare s-foot trefoil, -kohl, m. wood sorrel, -ohrlein, n. hare s-ear (Bupleurum). -schwanz, m, hare s-tail grass. 

Chemistry of Skunk Spray. Professor William F. Wood, Department of Chemistry, Hum-boldt State Univeristy, http //sorrel.humboldt.edu/ wfw2/chemofskunkspray.html... 

Oxalis corriculaza L. O. corymbosa DC Sha Jiang Cao (Wood sorrel) (leaf) Oxalate, vitamin C, calcium, citric acid, malic acid, tartaric acid.50 Antidote to arsenic and mercury, for bruises, clots, diarrhea, fever, influenza, snakebite, urinary infections. 

OXALIC ACID ORIGINALLY CAME FROM THE WOOD SORREL PLANT— OXAL/S. NOW IT IS MADE ARTIFICIALLY. 

Oxalic acid (chemical formula of this dicarhoxy-late HOOC-COOH) is a strong organic acid, widely spread in hoth plants and animals. The name comes from the Oxalis plant (wood sorrel) from which it was first isolated. 

Derivation Occurs naturally in many plants (wood sorrel, rhubarb, spinach) and can be made by alkali extraction of sawdust. Now manufactured by reaction of carbon monoxide and sodium hydroxide or of sodium formate with sodium hydroxide, followed by distillation of the resulting dihydrate crystals. 

Crystalline colourless solid. Found in many plants, particularly the leaves of the rhubarb plant and in the juice of wood sorrel. Salts of Sorrel, Salts of Lemon. Used as a bleach and ink stain remover. The concentrated solution is corrosive. Harmful if inhaled or absorbed through skin 15 g oral agonizing pain, nausea and vomiting with haematemesis. Lowers plasma calcium convulsions, tetany, tingling of mucous membranes. Renal damage tubular necrosis. Smallest lethal dose reported 3.8 g in a 16-year-old boy. 

A compound that is sometimes called sorrel salt can be used to remove ink stains or to clean wood. It is 30.52% potassium, 0.787% hydrogen, 18.75% carbon, and 49.95% oxygen. WTiat is the empirical formula for this compound ... 

The inhibition of the enzyme tyrosinase may very well be a key to the control of melanoma, and some of the known inhibitors include eommon substances. Thus, vitamin C, among other common and uncommon substances, has been listed as an enzyme inhibitor for tyrosinase in M.K. Jain s Handbook of Enzyme Inhibitors, 1965-1977 (1982). In addition to ascorbic acid (vitamin C), these other substances include the following halide ion (e.g., from the chloride of common salt, or from iodides and fluorides) butyric acid (from rancid butter) lactic acid (the end product of cancer cell metabolism, found naturally in sour milk products) oxalic acid (ordinarily considered toxic, although it occurs naturally in rhubarb and wood sorrel, etc.) formic acid (a component of ant stings) tyrosine itself and deadly cyanide (which is a chemically bound component of laetrile), as found in almonds (notably bitter almonds), in apricot seeds, and in certain legumes such as beans, etc., although the heat from cooking may drive off the cyanide content. 

The Sigma catalog lists tyrosinase, the enzyme involved in melanoma. As mentioned elsewhere, among the inhibitors listed in the handbooks of enzyme inhibitors are ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, halide ion (the halides being chlorides, notably, but also fluorides, bromides, and iodides), butyric acid (a component of rancid butter), lactic acid (the final product of anaerobic glycolysis, as occurs in cancer cell metabolism, and a component also of sour milk and buttermilk), oxalic acid (e.g., as found in rhubarb and in wood sorrel), formic acid (a component of ant stings), even tyrosine itself, and toxic cyanide ion. And, as has been indicated, alpine sunflower/yueea extract may possibly serve as an enzyme inhibitor for tyrosinase. 

One family of plants, the Oxalidaceae, get their name from the high concentrations of oxalic acid they contain. Perhaps the best known member of the family is the wood sorrel. 

Before jumping into our analysis of the poisonous amount of oxalie acid, it may be useful to become familiar with some of its properties. Oxalie aeid is a white crystalline sohd (most acids are not liquids 4.10), which dissolves quite readily in water (Fig. 4.21). It was first isolated from wood-sorrel by a French scientist in 1688, and subsequently, in 1776, noted Swedish ehemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele... 

Gillis M, de Ley J (1980) Intra- and intergeneric similarities of the ribosomal ribonucleic acid cistrons of Acetobacter and Gluconobacter. Int J Syst Bacteriol 30 7-27 Glushakova AM, Chernov lY (2004) Seasonal dynamics in a yeast population on leaves of the common wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella L. Microbiology 73 184—188... 

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