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Composition and Acidic Functional Group Chemistry of an Aqueous Chestnut Leaf Litter Extract¹

ABSTRACT

The elemental composition, amino acid distribution, infrared spectrum, and carboxyl group content of a chestnut leaf (Castanea sativa L.) litter extract were determined. Proton titration data also were obtained by both continuous and discontinuous titrations. The overall titration endpoint could be identified directly by conductometric titration. Proton formation functions for the extract were computed from the two sets of titration data. In order to explain protonation during titration, the data were fitted to a simple chemical model by nonlinear regression analysis. From this calculation, the acidic properties of the litter extract could be modeled assuming three classes of acidic functional groups, with logarithms of the conditional protonation constants in the ranges: 4.00–4.25, 6.00–6.75, and 8.7–9.0.

¹ Contribution from the Swiss Federal Inst. of Forestry Research, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland, and Dep. of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of California, Riverside.

² Soil Scientist, Swiss Federal Inst. of For. Res., Professor of Soil Science, and Research Associate IV, Univ. of Calif., respectively.

Received for publication June 16, 1983. Accepted for publication October 13, 1983.