Phytic acid, also known as inositol hexaphosphate and cyclohexanol hexaphosphate, is ubiquitous in eukaryotic cells and plays a key role in many cellular activities, such as maintaining inorganic phosphorus homeostasis, participating in plant hormone signaling, acting as an enzyme cofactor involved in DNA repair, RNA editing, and mRNA output. Phytic acid provides the main phosphorus source during the germination and growth of plants, and is widely found in plant foods such as cereals, beans, fruits, vegetables and dried fruits.

Under certain environmental conditions, phytase can decompose sodium phytate (inositol hexaphosphate) to produce inorganic phosphorus and inositol derivatives, under acidic conditions, inorganic phosphorus and ammonium molybdate color reagent react to produce blue molybdenum blue substance, which has a characteristic absorption peak at 700nm, by measuring the content of inorganic phosphorus, the phytic acid content can be calculated.