Where does Fulvic Acid come from?

As originated in nature, or through very high-quality processing and refining, fulvic acids are biologically active, low molecular weight (i.e., small molecules) derived from humates or fulvates. Regardless of the still unknown structure of humic substances and the great efforts to elucides, it is known that their major functional groups include carboxylic, phenolic, carbonyl, hydroxyl, amine, amide and aliphatic moieties, among others. Due to this polyfunctionality, humic substances are one of the most powerful chelating agents among natural organic substances. Natural organic colloids (humic and fulvic acids) are important because they form water-soluble complexes with many metals including radionuclides (Lubal et al. 1998, Lubal et al. 2000, Pacheco and Havel 2001, Ghabbour et al. 2001). The humic substances group can be divided into three components based on their solubility: fulvic acids, humic acids, and humin. Fulvic acids and humic acids represent alkalisoluble humus fragments and humin represents the insoluble residue. These organics may therefore be important as radionuclide transport agents through the environment. It is known that the presence of humic substances in natural waters can influence the uptake of radionuclides by natural solids and thus their migration to surface and ground waters (Bondietti 1982, Samanidou et al. 1991). Ion-exchange materials based on calcium humate were found suitable for the removal of such heavy metals as iron, nickel, mercury, cadmium and Peňa-Méndez et al.: Humic substances.