Acetic acid is widely distributed in nature, such as in fruits or vegetable oils, but it mainly exists in the form of esters. It exists as free acid in animal tissues, excreta and blood. Many microorganisms can transform different organic substances into acetic acid through fermentation.

Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar, and vinegar runs through almost the entire history of human civilization. Acetobacter (Acetobacter) can be found in every corner of the world, and every nation will inevitably find vinegar when making wine-it is the natural product of these alcoholic beverages after they are exposed to the air. In China, for example, there is a saying that Du Kang's son Heita got vinegar because of his long brewing time.

In ancient Rome, people boiled sour wine in a lead container to get a syrup with high sweetness, called "sapa". Sapa is rich in a sweet lead sugar, namely lead acetate. In the 8th century AD, the Persian alchemist Jaber concentrated acetic acid in vinegar by distillation.

During the Renaissance, glacial acetic acid was prepared by dry distillation of metal acetate. In 16th century, German alchemist Andreas Libavius compared glacial acetic acid produced by this method with acid extracted from vinegar. Because of the existence of water, the nature of acetic acid has changed greatly, so that for centuries, chemists thought it was two worlds apart. Until French chemist Pierre Adet proved that the main components of these two substances are the same.