Food Business News | Technology makes flavor enhancers out of raw materials. – 2012 August 16
In talking about deriving malic acid from ‘raw materials’ (presumably first generation, unprocessed plant material), a 2012 August 16 article in Food Business News on flavor enhancers implies that currently most commercially produced malic acid is derived from (petroleum) oil (plant material processed through centuries of intense heat and pressure). The article also states “it also may be converted into other chemical derivatives used for a variety of plastic, polymer and resin products”. Given that malic acid naturally occurs in all fruits such as lemons and apples (the source of the name ‘malic’), I find it troubling that we have been depending on petroleum for malic acid production and interesting that a fungus is required to separate malic acid from the raw materials. (“All fruits, including tomatoes, naturally contain malic acid. Even bananas, which have almost no acidic flavor contain 0.25 to 0.56 percent malic acid in weight per volume.” “Vegetables containing appreciable levels of malic acid include tomatoes, rhubarb, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, some beans and most peas.” Note that botanically tomato is a fruit and rhubarb is a vegetable though in common use and legally in the United States tomato is a vegetable and rhubarb is a fruit.)
Another use of malic acid (typically in the form of apples, apple cider (unpasteurized, unfiltered liquid from pressed apples), apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice) is to soften gallstones (enabling the gall bladder to expel the softened gallstones through the bile ducts from whence they are excreted in feces). The pectin in the apple may also play a role in home remedies for gallstone removal, but I have not read specifics on the beneficial mechanism. Anecdotally I can vouch for the benefits of adding apples and lemons to the diet to combat gallstones – the old adage ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ is still sound advice.