ABSTRACT
Identification or establishing the identity of the investigated substance with some known compound belongs to an important branch of organic chemistry, more so the chemistry of humic compounds. Without reliable methods of identification, investigations would remain at the level of semi-empirical approaches to the structure of humic substances wherein one has to rely more on methods of separation than on properties of compounds for including them under specific groups of compounds. Solving the problem of the structure of humic substances seemed more difficult than discovering the structure of proteins and nucleic acids because of the polydispersion of humic substances and their variable composition. The proposed model of the structure of humic acid, like others, should be considered probabilistic and hypothetical albeit it explains nearly all the known experimental results. The statistical nature of the model does not permit consideration of all the structural cells of humic acid, as identical in composition and structure.
