Further Investigations on the Chemistry of Fulvic Acid, a Soil Humic Fraction

Abstract

The fractionation scheme described in this and in an earlier paper resulted in the isolation and identification of about 2.0 g of pure components from 100 g of fulvic acid. About 28% of these compounds were phenolic acids, 19% benzenecarboxylic acids, 13% alkanes and fatty acids, and 40% dialkyl phthalates. The isolation of appreciable amounts of dialkyl phthalates was somewhat surprising but their presence was shown not be an artifact. The KMnO4 oxidation of the same fractions increased the yields of methylated phenolic and benzenecarboxylic acids by between 3 and 11 times.Following KMnO4 oxidation of methylated but unfractioned fulvic acid, the yield of phenolic and benzenecarboxylic acids increased substantially. The increased yields, after oxidation, of the same compounds as those that were separated without oxidation indicate that either these compounds originated from more complex structures or that they came from a structure of the type proposed earlier, which consists of phenolic and benzenecarboxylic acids joined by hydrogen-bonds, on which alkanes, fatty acids, and dialkyl phthalates are adsorbed.