Solubility of succinic acid in water vs ethyl acetate? Today I completed an organic lab practical test about discontinuous extraction. I had to extract succinic acid from a water solution using ethyl acetate as the solvent extractor. 
After the extraction, I calculated the partition coefficientto be 0.3. 
So, succinic acid is more soluble in water than ethyl acetate, but why?

Does it have to do with the ionization of the succinic in water that may not be possible in ethyl acetate or its related to the intermolecular interations?
Hydrogen bonding interactions are also much stronger between succinic acid and water as opposed to EA since EA doesn't have any H-atoms that can participate in the hydrogen bonding.

Ionization is also a significant point to consider, but without pH data we can't say for sure.