In the mid-1990s, Manfred Junius’ book was withdrawn from sale in Italy precisely because he was too explicit about the first part of the volatilization of tartar.
Then things changed, and Alchimia Verde, la preparazione alchemica delle sostanze vegetali, ed. Mediterranee came back on the market. The chapter I translated and commented on has been taken from the 1982 edition, thus before the editorial closing off. And I don’t know whether the newly published book has been re-edited and changed or kept the same lines as the 1979 – 1982 editions. I also don’t know about german and English editions.
My translation from Alchimia Verde, la preparazione alchemica delle sostanze vegetali, final part of chapter 3 ‘Three Philosophical Principles and the Elements‘:
“Old masters did not know that calcined tartar was almost carbonic potassium. The latter can be obtained, for example, with the sublimation of degreased wool ashes, as also with the incineration of plants and the extraction of salts from the calcined ash. The chemical formula will be the same. But the old alchemists knew how to make volatile Tartarus Calcinatus and distill it to cure certain diseases with it. For example, they used it to dissolve the salts of uric acid in the human organism.
The celebrated volatilization of Tartar is used to clarify the difference between the points of view of chemistry and alchemy. Let us go deeper into the volatilization of tartar.
Tartar is the salt of tartaric acid. The latter is found in fruit and the marcs in the free state, in the form of calcium and potassium salts.
Having two asymmetric carbon atoms, there are known three different structural forms of tartaric acid:
After having thoroughly analyzed these forms, we note they can be dextrorotatory, right-handed, when components divert the plane of polarized light of a positive angle, as we can see below:
and levorotatory, left-handed, those that turn it with a negative angle, as below:
An equimolar mixture of R and S forms are optically inactive because their action is canceled, as below:
The forms of tartaric acid have an identical number of atoms, but the situation of the two central -OH groups is different.
In nature, at the free state, only the dextrorotatory tartaric acid can form two different potassium salts by replacing one or two potassium atoms. In the first case, we replace a hydrogen atom with potassium. This is potassium bitartrate or potassium hydrogen tartrate, which is dextrorotatory:
In the second case below, we have the replacement of two hydrogen atoms with those of potassium. This formula identifies potassium tartar, which is neutral and also dextrorotatory:
Only the first of these two salts is found in abundance on the walls of the barrels in which the grape fermentation took place. In alchemy, this raw salt is called Tartarus Crudus (1). This raw tartar and potassium hydrogen tartrate also contain calcium tartrate.
A treatment with charcoal, clay, and heat (classic alchemists propose tiles powder) can ‘purify’ the tartar, which thus becomes Tartarus Depuratus, also called cream of tartar Cremor Tartari, with not more calcium tartrate inside; in fact, it is composed of about 99% of potassium hydrogen tartrate. The latter is not soluble in alcohol but in water heated at 100 C. (for example, one may dissolve 1 part of tartrate in 20 parts of water).
If Tartarus Depuratus is calcined, it forms a black mass such as coal, which is not more potassium acid tartrate but is alkaline.
For alchemists, the result obtained by the calcination of Tartarus Depuratus is simply Tartarus Depuratus Calcinatus, even if chemists, rightly in terms of their knowledge, insist that this substance is derived from tartar. Still, it has nothing to do with it.
Let’s make another step forward. The substance is further transformed with the processes of volatilization. There are several ways to get to the volatile state of tartar, including the coobation (2) process with wine vinegar, which is the most known and quoted among alchemists. (See, eg, Knorr von Rosenroth Artzney-Aufgang der Kunst; and Ortus Medicinae by J. B. van Helmont).
From a chemical point of view, the original tartar is thus constantly transformed by several treatment processes. Only the material used at the beginning of the steps to ‘give wings to our subject’ deserves the name ’tartar’; according to chemistry, it is not volatile, while for the rest, it comes to other substances. Chemists are right from their point of view of their discipline (and within the limit of their concepts). For alchemists, instead, tartar is presented in four different forms:
- as Tartarus Crudus;
- as Tartarus Depuratus;
- as Tartarus Depuratus Calcinatus;
- as Volatile Tartar.
The apparent confusion is just a matter of terms. Alchemy does not contradict chemistry, but it is different in its concepts and way of operating. The engineer who builds a hydroelectric power plant is almost concerned with the jump and flow of water and the exploitation of the forces of gravity acting on these because they will turn the turbines. While the gardener, however, will be interested in the vital forces of water. We must not confuse the categories and different levels. Accordingly, Basil Valentine taught ‘the proper use’ among the fundamentals of alchemy.“
- The solubility of potassium acid tartrate is reduced by the alcohol which arises during the fermentation. Thus, the salt precipitates as red or raw tartar.
- Coobation: the action of redistilling a liquid on the same material from which it was extracted as the first product of distillation. According to alchemists, this process leads to a relaxation of the material’s structure processed in this way.
Now it will be enough to put some order in the nomenclature of Tartari proposed by Junius:
Tartarus Crudus. That’s to say, replacing a hydrogen atom with potassium forms the salt of dextrorotatory tartaric acid. This is potassium bitartrate or potassium hydrogen tartrate, which is dextrorotatory and can be found in the free state of nature. Alchemists called it Tartar, with little or no importance given to the purity of the original matter. We have also seen that the solubility of potassium acid tartrate is reduced by the alcohol which arises during the fermentation. Thus, the salt precipitates as red or raw tartar.
Tartarus Depuratus. As mentioned above, treatment with charcoal, clay, and heat (classic alchemists propose tiles powder) can ‘purify’ the tartar, which thus becomes Tartarus Depuratus, also called cream of tartar, with not more calcium tartrate inside; in fact, it is composed of about 99% of potassium hydrogen tartrate. The latter is not soluble in alcohol but in water heated at 100 C. (for example, one may dissolve 1 part of tartrate in 20 parts of water).
Tartarus Depuratus Calcinatus. That’s to say, the result obtained by the calcination of Tartarus Depuratus. This substance already has little in common with tartar; it makes a black alkaline substance (the roasting and baking are intended to coagulate and insolubilize the protein nature of impurities).
The latter substance is further transformed with the processes of volatilization. There are several ways to get to the volatile state of tartar, including the coobation process with wine vinegar.
Let’s say frankly: the salt must help itself. The salt should already have within itself the origin of volatilization, also from the chemical point of view.