RESEARCH WORK IN THE FIELD OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
( AIMED AT CHECKING ADULTERATION IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS )
Under The Campaign of Protection of Consumer Rights

Analytical research work (in food sector) for the benefit of the entire international community, aimed at checking adulteration in consumer products, was carried out by the president & secretary of the society ( At the society’s sister laboratory, KANPUR TEST HOUSE ) in collaboration with scientists of Harcourt Butler Technological Institute [HBTI ] and VSSD College, Kanpur. The research work done was related to the vital field of edible oils, and the results were published in the Journals relating to the edible oil field. The abstracts of the published research papers are as follows :

1. "Identification of Physically Refined Rice Bran Oil and Its Simple Detection in Other Oils" [ J. Oleo Sci., 53, (8) 413-415 (2004) ]

A B S T R A C T

The issue of purity of the edibles is becoming increasingly important in the food industry. Many branded oil products are being sold at a premium price on the basis of their purity and quality, or on the basis of their health-boosting effects. Undue financial advantage is also taken by deliberately mislabeling or adulterating the oils and presenting them as quality products in the market. In the present paper a new, very simple, rapid, reliable and highly economical qualitative technique is being reported. By means of this test, adulteration of low-priced rice bran oil in high-priced oils cab be detected within one minute. A small quantity of alkaline solution of suspected oil sample when treated with small quantity of benzenediazonium chloride solution at 0 – 5oc followed by shaking of the mixture, a brilliant orange-red colour of 5-phenylazo-g-oryzanol or 5-phenylazoferulic acid ( which is indeed a dye material ) develops within the next few seconds indicating the presence of rice bran oil adulteration in the test sample. Upto 2.5 % rice bran oil adulteration can be detected with this new techniqe.

2. “Identification of Argemone Oil and its Simple Qualitative Detection in Mustard Oil ” [ Brassica, 5, ( 3 & 4 ), 75 – 76, 2003 ]

A B S T R A C T

At present time, when unethical trading practices including adulteration have assumed alarming dimensions, quick and sure tests for judging the quality of products will prove to be very useful. In the present paper a new, very simple and highly economical colour test is reported by means of which adulteration of argemone oil in mustard oil can be detected within one minute. A few drops of suspected mustard oil sample when treated successively with a methanolic solution of salicylic acid in presence of nitric acid, and sulphuric acid followed by shaking of the mixture, a crimson red or deep orange-red colour develops within the next few seconds indicating the presence of argemone oil in mustard oil. Upto 0.1 % argemone oil adulteration can be detected with this new technique. The coloured product formed is supposed to be a nitrosalicylate salt of hydrolyzed sanguinarine.

3. “A simple non-instrumental technique to differentiate a natural mustard oil sample from a synthetically-made artificially mustard oil ”

[ J. Oil Tech. Assn. India, 34, (4) 147-148 (2002) ]

A B S T R A C T

The commercial value of the mustard oil is quite often evaluated by the common man on the basis of the degree of sharpness of the smell and pungency exhibited by the oil. The smell and pungency arise owing to the presence of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) and other isothiocyanate ( R-NCS ). A simple and reliable, non-instumental technique has been developed by means of which natural ( unadulterated ) and synthetically made artificial mustard oil samples can be differentiated in the laboratory. The AITC either in pure form or in the blended form with some other oil when refluxed with an aqueous solution of sodium azide ( NaN3 ) produces 1-allyl-2-tetrazoline-5-thione (Hatt-5) which upon reaction with a neutral or very slightly acidic solution of bismuth nitrate, Bi(NO3)3, produce a characteristic deep yellow precipitate of a co-ordination complex, [Bi(att-5)2NO3]. In place of bismuth nitrate, bismuth chloride solution can also be used. The AITC content of the natural mustard oil, owing to some unknown reasons as yet, does not react with sodium azide, hence the final reaction with bismuth nitrate gives no colour reaction. However, synthetic or artificially made mustard oil samples ( to which AITC has been deliberately mixed with any other oil) easily give colour reaction with bismuth nitrate following heating with sodium azide solution. A synthetic mustard oil containing down to o.1 % AITC can be easily identified by this new technique.

UREA WAS NOT THE FIRST EVER ORGANIC COMPOUND SYNTHESIZED IN THE LABORATORY, FROM INORGANIC MATERIALS

Apiece of Research Work in the History of Organic Chemistry
By
Sarabjeet Singh Johar ( President, Chemistry for Humanity & Divinity)

Correction of an historical misrepresentation


The general conception as advanced by our text books of organic chemistry -- Indian or foreign -- that the German chemist FRIEDRICH WOHLER was the pioneer to carry out the first ever synthesis of an organic compound, UREA, by heating ammonium cyanate, must now be discarded. The impression that by synthesizing urea in the laboratory in the year 1828, FREDRICH WOHLER inflicted a death blow to the mysterious “Vital Force Theory” of JONS JAKOB BERZELIUS propounded by him in 1815, is far from truth. It appears that authors of text books as well as historians of chemistry throughout world have overlooked a landmark reaction carried out by a German physicist rather than a German chemist that led to the synthesis of the first ever synthetic organic substance, seven years earlier ( in 1821 ) than the reported work of FRIEDRICH WOHLER ( in 1828 ). Incidentally, the credit of first ever organic synthesis goes to a man namesake of WOHLER ( actually A. WOHLER ). The compound synthesized by A. WOHLER was comparatively complex in structure as compared to simple structural nature of urea prepared, by F. WOHLER. That is why, the problem of resolving the true structure of the “first” organic compound in the history of chemistry continued for 140 years.

When the Vital Force Theory of BERZELIUS was only 6 years old, A. WOHLER had carried out an historical reaction between ammonium thiocyanate and concentrated hydrochloric acid, and isolated a pale yellow crystalline solid, m.p. 200 degree centigrade ( decompn ). It was shown to be a pure organic substance, having the molecular formula H2C2N2S3, and hitherto not isolated from any of the natural sources—plants or animals, was immediately published ( Ann. Physik, 69, 273, 1821 ), but as to the structural formula of the compound, the problem remained unsolved.

NH4CNS + HCl --- H2C2N2S3

This 19th century compound, named isoperthiocyanic acid, remained in total darkness even upto the middle of 20th century. It was only in the year 1961 ( 140 years after its first isolation ) that the structure of isoperthiocyanic acid was resolved by A. HORDVIK ( Acta Chem. Scand., 15, 1186, 1961 ) when he published its electron density maps which showed the presence of two adjacent sulphur atoms in a five-membered ring. The work of A. HORDVIK as well as that of EMELEUS et al. ( H. J. Emeleus, A. Haas, and N. J. Shepperd, J. Org. Chem., 3165, 1963 ) have proved that isoperthiocyanic acid is actually 3-Amino-5-thione-1,2,4-dithiazole.

Laten on, in Germany, United States, and USSR, isoperthiocyanic acid was found useful as a vulcanizing agent for polychloroprene rubber and for chemical colouring of nonferrous metals. It has also found use as an analytical reagent in the laboratory.
Thus, isoperthiocyanic acid has been used for the selective detection of nitrite ion ( G. S. Johar, G. Majumdar, and J. P. Singh, Mikrochim. Acta, 47, 79, 1972 ), determination of cadmium ( M. I. Lebedeva et al., Zh. Anal. Khim., 79, 1440, 1974 ) and determination of niobium ( B. Tamhina and C. Djordjevic, Croat. Chem. Acta, 47, 79, 1975 ). D. A. EDWARDS et al. ( Inorg. Chim. Acta, 23, 215, 1977 ) have worked out the complex formation potential of isoperthiocyanic acid, and have prepared and characterized its palladium( II ), platinum( II ), and copper( I ) complexes.

It should therefore be clear, once and for all, to all the chemistry people -- teachers, researchers, students, etc. -- that it was A. WOHLER who in 1821 had synthesized the first ever organic compound ( isoperthiocyanic acid or 3-Amino-5-thione-1,2,4-dithiazole ) in the laboratory, from inorganic sources. Consequently, the credit of disproving the vital force theory of BERZELIUS goes to A. WOHLER, and not to F. WOHLER.

The sulfocyanic theory on the origin of life

In the early 1930s, Alfonso L. Herrera proposed his so-called sulfocyanic theory on the origin of life, an autotrophic proposal on the first living beings according to which NH4SCN and H2CO ( formaldehyde ) acted as raw materials for the synthesis of bio-organic compounds inside primordial photosynthetic protoplasmic structures. Although the work of Herrera has been frequently cited in historical analysis of the development of the origin of life studies, but confirmatory attention to the chemical significance of the Herrera’s reactions has been given only recently by L. Perezgasga, E. Siilva, A. Lazcano, & A. Negron-Mendoza [ International Journal of Astrobiology (2003), 2:301-306 ]. In their paper the authors have reported the results of their search for amino acids obtained from a reactive mixture used by Herrera from 1933 onwards. Chromatograms using the high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique suggest the presence of several amino acids, the total yield being 2% of the initial thiocyanate used. Preliminary identification based on HPLC retention times suggests the presence of glycine, alanine, cysteine and methionine. Alanine was the most abundant amino acid in all samples of fractionated material analysed. Although the starting materials used by Herrera were determined by his autotrophic hypothesis on the origin of cells, but the results obtained by A. Lazcano et al. showed that Herrera’s experiments may provide insights into the abiotic synthesis of sulfur-containing amino acids within the framework of a heterotrophic emergence of life.