DL-Choline Bitartrate: Physical Characteristics and Detailed Product Description

What is DL-Choline Bitartrate?

DL-Choline Bitartrate brings together choline, a vital nutrient, with tartaric acid to create a compound widely recognized in health and industrial circles. Used as a raw material, its versatility extends from nutritional supplements to food additives. The chemical belongs to the class of quaternary ammonium salts and presents itself in various commercial forms, meeting the needs of multiple sectors. My experience with supplement formulation taught me choline bitartrate matters—without adequate choline, essential functions in the body cannot run properly, and product stability slips if the material’s structure or purity wanders outside set ranges.

Products and Forms

Available as a solid white powder, crystals, fine flakes, granular pearls, or dissolved in solution, DL-Choline Bitartrate interests formulators for its ease of handling and incorporation. Powder works well for blending into tablets, ensuring accurate dosing. The crystalline or pearl form proves useful in bulk processing, while specialty applications may favor the liquid solution for direct inclusion into aqueous systems. Each form exhibits unique bulk density and flow properties—powders average about 0.32-0.35 g/cm³, while dense crystals can double that. The solid structure dissolves readily in water, giving clear, slightly acidic solutions. Personal experience shows powder form offers a balance between solubility and storage, but bulk users appreciate the stability of pearl or crystal.

Chemical Structure and Molecular Details

DL-Choline Bitartrate combines choline (C5H14NO) with tartaric acid (C4H6O6) in a stoichiometric ratio, yielding the formula C9H19NO7. The dual presence of choline (quaternary ammonium cation) and tartrate (organically derived anion) underpins its strong hygroscopicity. Each molecule features a positively charged nitrogen atom and carboxyl groups giving it solubility and stability. As someone who has mixed this compound in lab settings, the monohydrate form often appears when care isn't taken to keep humidity down—this added water sometimes affects actual choline content in a batch.

Properties and Specifications

Pure DL-Choline Bitartrate comes as a white, free-flowing powder, showing a faint odor that hints at its amine backbone. Melting point often ranges between 151-153°C. Water solubility crosses 650g/L at room temperature, but dissolution is slightly slower in colder water. Density checks range from 1.15 to 1.20 g/cm³ for most solid samples. Standard specifications look for purity above 98.5%, moisture under 2%, heavy metals below 10ppm, and minimal residue on ignition. Production lines targeting food and supplement use set even tighter impurity profiles, demanding cleanroom-level monitoring during each production step. I've learned from regulation audits that small deviations can send an entire batch for reprocessing, which costs both time and reputation.

HS Code and Regulatory Data

The standard Harmonized System (HS) Code for DL-Choline Bitartrate sits at 29239000 under "Quaternary ammonium salts and hydroxides." This code ensures that customs and regulatory officials worldwide recognize the substance as a specialty chemical, not a bulk feed. Over the years, supply chain tracking and lot traceability grew in importance as regulatory scrutiny heightened—customers and regulators alike check for proper documentation and accurate labeling for every shipment.

Material Safety: Hazards and Precautions

This compound remains classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) when consumed within prescribed limits. As an industrial chemical, care is still important. Inhalation of fine powder dust may irritate respiratory tract, while unprotected skin contact causes mild irritation for sensitive users. Proper PPE—gloves, goggles, dust mask—should be standard in processing plants. In storage, sealed containers reduce hygroscopic uptake of water, which helps avoid caking and loss of potency. Most safety data sheets show LD50 values greater than 4000 mg/kg (oral, rat), underscoring low acute toxicity, but chronic overexposure may burden liver function, making waste disposal a regulated issue in large-scale facilities. Personal familiarity with product recalls taught me the value of rigorous batch tracking and workplace hygiene, not just for regulatory compliance but for actual worker safety.

Applications and Solutions for Handling

DL-Choline Bitartrate finds its most frequent use in dietary supplements designed to boost cognitive performance and liver health. In food manufacturing, it serves to fortify infant formula and energy drinks with choline, a critical nutrient missing from many diets. On the chemical side, formulations for veterinary products or animal feed benefit from the stable form this salt offers. Practical experience suggests careful dosing and blending with anti-caking agents keeps formulas shelf-stable and reduces cross-contamination risk. For labs working with custom blends, solubility testing in distilled water must be repeated each time sourcing changes—minor variances between batches have tripped up many an R&D team working with new lots. Producers and end-users can improve product outcomes with tighter input controls, regular ingredient testing, and feedback loops between sourcing, production, and application teams.

Reflections on Sourcing and Supply Chain

In my work sourcing DL-Choline Bitartrate from both domestic and overseas suppliers, price and quality can swing dramatically based on purity, crystal form, and batch-to-batch consistency. The global HS code system helps align what gets shipped and what customs expects, but only actual chemical analysis confirms what's inside. Trusted suppliers, robust certificates of analysis, and in-house QC testing mark the difference between a dependable product and a batch that causes headaches down the line. As demand for nutritional products grows, strong supplier relationships and clear technical documentation help users avoid pitfalls with raw material chain-of-custody.

Summary Table: Key Specifications