Iron precipitate from fruit juice & tea

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From: BenP (bpitt@n2.com)
Date: Wed May 24 2000 - 07:55:01 PDT 

Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 07:55:01 -0700
From: "BenP" <bpitt@n2.com>
Message-ID: <FAKAKFICKDFOBAAA@shared1-mail.whowhere.com>
Subject: Iron precipitate from fruit juice & tea

Hi,

A student's younger sister is coming to me with eyes wide open, looking for an answer I don't have (yet).

What is the chemical reaction that causes a precipitate to form when tea is added to fruit juices? 'They' say this is a test for iron.

I have never conducted this experiment, and cursory searches in my limited chemistry materials and on the internet have yielded me very little. I've run into a couple of short cryptic discussions on the binding of iron by the tea's tannic acid. But I cannot find anything clear on this idea.

Cornell has an interesting set of pages on tannins where it discusses affinity for certain large molecules such as carbohydrates and proteins, but I find no reference to a reaction that would precipitate iron.

Any help out there from you biochemists or other interested pinholers?

Thanks,
Ben Pittenger
bpitt@n2.com

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