Chromatography Forum

Thanks that sound like a very simple method. Do you think there is any chance it would also esterfy hydroxy and poly-acids like tartaric, citric, malic, fumaric, succinic and pyruvic?

Never mind I just read base cannot catalyze the esterfication of free fatty acids.

I did some more testing and decided I like the mild methanolysis method the best. I also found it works on lactic, malic, succinic, fumaric, tartaric and citric acids though I extracted with ethyl acetate and added saturated NaCl rather than water for those (free -OH makes them more polar). I also substituted methylene chloride for toluene because I had none.

I prefer the 100 deg C incubation for 1 hour rather than overnight at 45 deg C.

35% concentrated HCl brought down to 1.2% with methanol with resultant esterfication solution containing 2.2% water.