Humic Acid

Humic Acid comes entirely from vegetation which was laid down in the Carboniferous Period . Millions of years ago, earth's mineral-rich soils produced a profusion of lush green forests, succulent fruits and vegetables.
As this lush growth of vegetation died, it accumulated and later, was buried by rock and mudflows and deposits of sand and silt. The weight of these deposits compacted and compressed out all of the moisture.
Over the ages, the vegetation underwent compaction and heating. It slowly carbonized and became coal.
This compaction squeezed out the organic acids and esters present in the vegetation and formed a pool on top of the lignite coal bed. This pool dried and aged and eventually formed Leonardite shale. What remains today is a deposit of dried, prehistoric plant derivatives.
During this process simple products of decomposition: amino acids, carbohydrates and phenols, turn into very complex products - Humic Acids.
Because of its vegetative origin, this material is very rich and beneficial to plants today.
In natural conditions humic acids are not soluble. It is a reaction of nature, otherwise soils could be deprived of humus and washed out to sea.
Humates are the salts of humic acids, which form complexes with phosphorus and micro elements which are easy assimilated by plants, and sharply increase efficiency of mineral fertilizers.
Humate materials are widely distributed organic carbon containing compounds, found in soils, fresh water, and oceans, and make up approximately 75 percent of the organic matter that exists in most mineral soils. Humates play a direct role in determining the production potential of a soil.
Quality: Not all the products on the market under the name Humates are of a high quality.
There are several different chemical structures of Humic Acid. The more concentrated forms are the best and in the long run, and can be the cheapest.
The first, is fossilized brown oxidized lignite or Leonardite. This product has 30- 40% humic acid content, 30-40% of mineral part -ash, and the balance is presented by unknown ballast substances. Recommended application norms of these products are very high, because humic acids in them are insoluble and are not in an active form. Mineral content of these products have metals which bind to humic acids. Long time usage of these products pollutes the soil.
The second group is produced in the common method of treatment of lignites with concentrated alkalines. The content of Humic acids of these products is within the level of 20-30%. Humates here are in active form, but they still have a high content of ballast and ash, which causes above mentioned problems.
The third group of Humates is produced in the way of treatment of brown lignite or Leonardite with alkaline solutions. These Humates are high quality products, because they are free from ballast, but they are very expensive and difficult to transport and handle. Moreover the production process leaves a lot of waste.
The fourth group are Humates produced from a high quality tested lignites, with 70% humic acid content, 12% mineral ash part and 18% organic ballast. These soluble products are in powder form with 75-85% of Humic acids.
Only two products meet those requirements; these come from East Siberia, Russia and N.W. New Mexico; these are freshwater deposits and have the highest percentage of low molecular weight humic acids, generally referred to as Fulvic acids.
Fulvic acid is the acid radical found in humic matter which is soluble in alkali, acid, methyl ethyl ketone, and methyl alcohol. Fulvates are the salts of fulvic acid.
Both fulvic and humic acids found in soil, result from the chemical and biological degradation of dead organisms. Fulvic acids provide multiple and natural chemical reactions in the soil, instigating positive influences on the plants' metabolic processes.
Fulvic acid is especially active in dissolving minerals and metals when in solution with water. The metallic minerals simply dissolve into ionic form, and disappear into the fulvic structure becoming bio-chemically reactive and mobile. The Fulvic acid actually transforms these minerals and metal into elaborate fulvic acid molecular complexes that have vastly different characteristics from their previous metallic mineral form. Fulvic acid is nature's way of "chelating" metallic minerals, turning them into readily absorbable bio-available forms.
Fulvic acid readily complexes with minerals and metals making them available to plant roots and easily absorbable through cell walls. It makes the actual movement of metal ions that are normally difficult to mobilize or transport. such as iron, easily transportable through plant structures.
It allows minerals to inter-act with one another, breaking them down into the simplest ionic forms, chelated by the fulvic acid electrolyte. Fulvic acid is a natural organic electrolyte.
An electrolyte is a substance that is soluble in water or other appropriate medium that is capable of conducting electrical current. Fulvic acid has proven to be a powerful organic electrolyte.
Fulvic acids also dissolve and transpose vitamins, coenzymes, auxins, hormones and natural antibiotics that are generally found throughout the soil, making them available. These substances are effective in stimulating even more vigorous and healthy growth proceeding certain bacteria, fungi, and actinomyceles in decomposing vegetation in the soil.
It has been determined that all known vitamins can be present in healthy soil .
Plants manufacture many of their own vitamins with those from the soil further supplementing the plant. Upon ingestion these nutrients are easily absorbed by animals and humans, due to the fact that they are in perfect natural plant form as nature intended.
The majority of research and experimentation on fulvic acid, has been done in relation to plants. Yet humans have been ingesting fulvic acid complexes regularly for over 60 years in supplemental form, and for thousands of years from natural food and plant sources.
Testimonials continue to show that the beneficial properties relating to plant and cell studies, hold true in relation to animal and humans as well.