Edgar Charles Bate-Smith (?-1989) was an English chemist and phytochemist specialising in food chemistry. He worked in the Low Temperature Research Station in Cambridge where his main fields of research were meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

 and polyphenol

Polyphenol

Polyphenols are a structural class of natural, synthetic, and semisynthetic organic chemicals characterized by the presence of large multiples of phenol structural units...

s.

In 1951, Bate-Smith developed and first described a coloration method to detect the presence of condensed tannins (also called proanthocyanidin

Proanthocyanidin

Proanthocyanidins, also known as OPCs or condensed tannins, are a subgroup of the flavonoid class of polyphenols...

s) in plant materials. This reaction is based on heating in acidic conditions and gives rise to anthocyanidin

Anthocyanidin

Anthocyanidins are common plant pigments. They are the sugar-free counterparts of anthocyanins based on the flavylium ion or 2-phenylchromenylium, which is a type of oxonium ion . They form a large group of polymethine dye. In particular anthocyanidins are salt derivatives of the...

 pigments.

Bate-smith recommended the use of the Forestal

Forestal

Forestal is a solvent used in chromatography, composed of acetic acid, water, and hydrochloric acid in a 10:30:3 ratio by volume. It is useful for isolating anthocyanins in room-temperature chromatography using standard filter paper.- References :...

 solvent for the isolation of leuco-anthocyanins.

In 1973, he suggested an assay based on the precipitation of hemoglobin

Hemoglobin

Hemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae, as well as the tissues of some invertebrates...

 by tannin

Tannin

A tannin is an astringent, bitter plant polyphenolic compound that binds to and precipitates proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.The term tannin refers to the use of...

s.

Bate-Smith has been awarded the food technology Bor S. Luh International Award

Bor S. Luh International Award

The Bor S. Luh International Award has been awarded every year since 1956. Before 2005, this award was named the International Award. It is given to an individual or institution that had outstanding efforts in one of the following areas in food technology: 1) International exchange of ideas, 2)...

in 1964.