Why is it not advisable to soak tamarind used for cooking in copper or iron vessels?

Question

This is actually a chemistry question for grade 7....... so dudes please help me out ........

Answer 1

Tamarind contains different organic acids ( tartaric, citric, malic, formic, acetic, and butyric acids ) and the pH of pulp is about 3,3.

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic...

While soaking or cooking it in copper or iron vessels, it is able to react with and dissolve these base metals ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_metal ) and poisonous iron and copper ions come up.

Answer 2

as far as i know....tamarind is sour because it contains acids (acids are generally sour in taste n fruits like lemon that are sour have acids like 'citric acid' responsible for this taste in them).

and acids reacts with metals...specially the reactive ones like copper and iron as mentioned by you.....so if we would soak tamarind in vessels made of such metals...the acids of this fruit would react with the metal and the compounds produced...especially the salts produced in such reactions are not good for our health....don't know if they are toxic or not, but they are not considered to be good atleast.....