Investigation of Geographical Origin and Production Method of L(+)-Tartaric Acid by Isotopic Analyses with Chemometrics

The determination of the geographical origin as well as the adulteration of natural products is a technical problem due to similar chemical composition between an adulterant and the original. It is assumed that tartaric acid comes from natural sources, however there is no specific regulation for this claim. This paper describes the use of isotope mass spectrometry associated with chemometrics to classify different samples of tartaric acid. The results showed that the variables δC, δO and δH allowed the discrimination of tartaric acid samples by geographical origin and production method. By using a combination of chemometric analysis it was possible to confirm a notoriousseparation of the samples. Thus, this is a promising method to be applied in the quality control and authenticity of tartaric acid.