Analysis of commercial vegetable tanning agents by reversed-phase liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry and its application to wastewater.

Commercial vegetable tanning agents that are derived from plants and consist of condensed or hydrolyzable tannins were analyzed by electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) to identify their major constituents and to study their collision-induced dissociation. In the condensed tannin wattle a series of proanthocyanidin dimers to tetramers was identified together with the flavonoid monomers catechin and gallocatechin. The composition of the hydrolyzable tannin chestnut was more heterogenous. Besides the monomers ellagic and gallic acid a variety of gallotannins were detected, namely mono-, di- and trigalloylglucose, and a variety of ellagitannins. Reversed-phase HPLC-ESI-MS/MS methods were developed to detect condensed and hydrolyzable tannins in tannery wastewaters by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The methods proved suitable even for highly loaded wastewaters. However, the detected amount of wattle tanning agent in spent retanning baths was about two orders of magnitude below the amount used for the retanning. This suggests that the condensed tannins of polyphenolic structure are rapidly transformed during the tanning process to yet unknown products.