AACC International Approved Methods
Explanatory Notes

Issued March 2000

Unless otherwise specified, "alcohol" is 95% ethyl alcohol; "ether" is ethyl ether; "water" is distilled water; HCl, H₂SO₄, and HNO₃ are concentrated; and temperatures are in the Centigrade scale.

In expressions such as (1 + 2) or (5 + 4), used in connection with the name of a reagent, the first numeral indicates the volume of reagent used and the second numeral indicates the volume of water. For example, "HCl (1 + 2)" means a reagent prepared by mixing one volume of HCl with two volumes of water. When one of the reagents is solid, the expression means parts by weight, the first numeral representing the solid reagent and the second numeral, the water.

Letter designations in method numbers indicate that revisions made since the particular method was first issued have changed it substantially.

The reference Official Methods of Analysis is listed as published by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists for the 15th edition (1990) and by AOAC International for the 16th edition (1995), reflecting the organization’s name change in 1992.