ABSTRACT
Glycerine is one of the most versatile chemicals because of its safety, humectant properties, and chemical properties. One of the most important—and difficult—requirements for obtaining accurate analyses on glycerine is the sampling procedure itself. The most common method for establishing the purity of glycerine is the oxidation of glycerine with periodate, followed by acid-base titration of the resulting increase in acidity due to formic acid generation. Food Chemicals Codex and United States Pharmacopeial standards call for comparison of glycerine colors with aqueous ferric chloride solution. The specific gravity of glycerine is the weight ratio of a given volume of glycerine to the same volume of water at a specified temperature. Commercially traded refined glycerine is generally light in color, and simple visual tests are normally satisfactory to demonstrate suitable color. To validate the specific analysis, meats were prepared from infusing solutions containing fixed ratios of sucrose, sorbitol, glycerine, and propylene glycol, but with varying amounts of water.
