Chestnut tannin

Description

A vegetable tannin of the pyrogallol class is extractable with hot water from chestnut wood (13.4%) and bark (6.8%). Chestnut tannin extract has a low pH and low salts, but high acids and high sugar content. It produces a firm, heavy leather with a pale, reddish color. Chestnut extract is usually mixed with other tannins, such as Quebracho, Mimosa, or myrobalans. The dark color extracts from the tree bark has been used as a dye in 19th century Italy and southern France to make an inexpensive fast black dye for silk.

Synonyms and Related Terms

chestnut bark; chestnut extract; chestnut dye

Physical and ChemicalProperties

Soluble in hot water.

Resources and Citations

• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut (accessed April 2020)

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• American Leather Chemists Association Glossary at www.leatherchemists.org

• F. Crace-Calvert, Dyeing and Calico Printing, Palmer & Howe, London, 1876