Sorbic Acid (SA)

Sorbic acid is a natural organic compound used as a food preservative. It has the chemical formula C6H8O2. It is a colourless solid that is slightly soluble in water and sublimes readily. It was first isolated from the unripe berries of the rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia), hence its name.

Sorbic acid was isolated in 1859 by distillation of rowanberry oil by A.W von Hofmann. This affords the lactone of sorbic acid, which he converted to sorbic acid by hydrolysis. Its antimicrobial activities were discovered in the late 1930s and 1940s, and it became commercially available in the late 1940s and 1950s. Beginning in the 1980s, sorbic acid and its salts were used as inhibitors of Clostridium botulinum in meat products in order to reduce the amount of nitrites, which produce carcinogenic nitrosamines.