| Abstract: | The colorimetric method and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) method of evaluating the humic acid content of five raw humate ores and three humate products were compared to the classical technique of extraction in a dilute base followed by precipitation of humic acid by extract acidification and ash removal by hydrochloric/hydrofluoric acid (HCl/HF) wash. Compared to the classical procedure, the colorimetric and CDFA methods overestimated the humic acid content of the eight samples by 120% and 52%, respectively. Therefore, these procedures do not produce a reliably accurate value for the humic acid contents of humates and products produced using materials extracted from them. |
