Does anyone know of a way to separate the calcium part from calcium beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (calcium HMB) so that we would be left with β-Hydroxy β-methylbutyric acid (HMB free acid)?
Calcium HMB is a sport supplement, but recent research has shown that the free acid form of HMB is superior. Therefore I would like to find out if it's possible for a home chemist to perform the conversion.
To be clear, to go from this:
Calcium 3-hydroxy-3-methylbutyrate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrateto this:
3-hydroxy-3-methylbutanoic acid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta-Hydroxy_beta-methylbutyric_acidIt was suggested to me that citric acid might be used, but I don't have a clue if that would work.
Can anyone help?