Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the ability of commercial tara powder to convert rust into iron tannate and evaluate their use as raw material for the formulation of water based rust converter. Design/methodology/approach - Water-borne acrylic primers were formulated with tara powder and aqueous tara extract and applied on steel rusted by three different methods. The conversion of rusted steel by tara tannins was studied by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The acrylic primers, containing hydrolysable tannins, were coated with alkyd finish and were evaluated in comparison to commercial systems in accelerated corrosion tests. The corrosion inhibition effects of tara powder on mild steel in 0.1M NaCl were studied by DC electrochemical techniques. Findings - Tara tannin converts rust to ferric tannate and increases the magnetite content of rusted steel. The water-based acrylic primer formulated with aqueous extract of tara, alkyd-coated finish, showed performance equivalent to pure alkyd system. Research limitations/implications - The chlorides content in the commercial tara powder can be screened the beneficial effect of hydrolysable tannins to convert rust. Furthermore, the water-based rust converter formulated with acrylic resin may be sensitive to salt contamination of rust. Originality/value - Hydrolysable tannins from commercial tara powder have not been studied yet in its application to the development of rust converters. A water-based primer formulated with commercial tara powder developed for the effective treatment of rusted surfaces can be of interest as an environmentally friendly to current commercial approaches.