Tannic acid is only faintly odorous — a dry, astringent, slightly woody-phenolic whisper reminiscent of oak bark, dry tea leaves, and old leather. It is used more as a fixative and mouthfeel/textural tannin-like character in flavor work than as a true olfactory ingredient in perfumery.AI · claude-opus-4-7
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Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 1271.
Pale greyish or off-white or pale brownish, fluffy, amorphous powder.
Soluble in water, also soluble in alcohol and glycerin, but insoluble in most oils.
Very strictly purified material is practically odorless, while commercial grade material has a faint, peculiar woody-medicinal odor.
The taste is bitter and it gives an astringent mouthfeel.
Tannic acid is used as a bitter principle and astringent additive in many flavors, but is not always incorporated in the flavor composition.
1) by extraction from nutgalls (Chinese or Turkish), from myrobalans (Terminalia sp.), oak bark, etc.; 2) by esterification of glucose with meta-galloylgallic acid.