Talk:Malic acid

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Hi JeLuf, I saw your image for Malic acid, it is great except you have 3 bonds that are wrong, going from left to right on the structure, the second carbon has two vertical lines (one above, one below), there should be an 'H' on the end of these lines to denote hydrogen. A line without a symbol is implicitly stating it connects a Carbon atom- which is incorrect. Also the vertical bond on the 3rd backbone carbon also needs an 'H'. I hope this message is clear, it would be really easy on a white board :)

Thanks

Hello,

I just checked with several of my chemistry books, and all of them use a line without a symbol for 'H', not for 'CH₃'. Those are German books. Is this convention different between countries? -- JeLuF 17:34 11 Jun 2003 (UTC)

JeLuF - 2 things: 1) at least here in the US, the convention in a drawn chemical strucure is that a line with no symbol denotes a bond to Hydrogen atom - you had it right. 2) Does anybody out there have a Ka value for Malic Acid? You can e-mail it to tristanj@morebeer.com, I'd be much appreciative. Tristan

Certainly in the UK, and I am pretty sure internationally, a line terminus on its own is considered to be a carbon atom in skeleton structures, NOT a hydrogen. See for example: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/basicorg/conventions/draw.html , a UK site (three quarters of way down page, "Skeletal formulae")

and here, this is an American page: http://pirate.shu.edu/~sowajohn/shortcourse/part1/part1.html see one third of the way down, "Drawing Organic Structures", each intersection and endpoint is a C. Carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds are shown. The remaining valences on C are assumed to be H's.

and here, another US site: http://homepage.smc.edu/kline_peggy/Organic/Organic_Structures.html Line structures are used for both linear and cyclic structures. In these structures it is understood that there is a carbon atom at each "bend" and that each carbon atom is attached to as many hydrogen atoms as are needed to complete its valence of four.

and from Wikipedia itself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_formula 143.252.80.110 18:10, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merging Malic Acid and Malate

I think this page should definitely be merged with Malate.Derekawesome 06:29, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree, because to a biochemist, malate means malic acid. I would not recommend merging sodium malate and the parent acid.--Smokefoot 18:01, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requseted addition =

This page would be greatly enhanced with a list of other fruits and vegetables that are high in malic acid, apart from apples. OliAtlason (talk) 18:24, 2 March 2008 (UTC)