Rapid Raman spectroscopic determination of 1-feruloyl-sn-glycerol and 1,3-diferuloyl-sn-glycerol

Authors: Compton, David - Dave; Appell, Michael

Submitted to: Spectrochimica Acta
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/29/2019
Publication Date: 3/1/2020
Citation: Compton, D.L., Appell, M. 2020. Rapid Raman spectroscopic determination of 1-feruloyl-sn-glycerol and 1,3-diferuloyl-sn-glycerol. Spectrochimica Acta. 229:118020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2019.118020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2019.118020

Interpretive Summary: Ferulic acid is a natural antioxidant found throughout the plant kingdom. This compound is usually chemically bound to other plant components, such as sugars and oils, and can be present in many different structural forms. They are of special interest due to their health benefits and ability to be used as cosmetic ingredients. One of the problems with studying ferulic acid-containing compounds is that methods to determine their structure are lacking. This research demonstrates a rapid method using a technique called Raman spectroscopy for generating a structural fingerprint of these compounds. We show how this method can easily differentiate two different ferulic acid-containing compounds that are produced as part of an industrial process to synthesize these important natural products using vegetable oils. The successful development and transfer to industry of these method contributes to the development of the national bioeconomy and supports greater economic returns to US agricultural producers and rural economies through expanded, value-added markets for agricultural materials and byproducts.

Technical Abstract: Ferulic acid and its derivatives are important natural products found throughout the plant kingdom and are of special interest due to their health benefits. 1-Feruloyl-sn-glycerol (FG) and 1,3-diferuloyl-sn-glycerol (F2G) are two common bioproducts of ferulic acid that co-occur during bioprocessing. In this paper, we report a comprehensive characterization of FG and F2G using Raman and UV spectroscopies and theoretical density functional theory calculations at the B3LYP/6-311+G** level. UV spectroscopy produced spectra for FG and F2G with similar peak shape, but difference intensities. The vibrational frequency calculations aided in the assignment of the Raman bands. The Raman analysis demonstrates that Raman spectroscopy is a rapid label free method to clearly distinguish between FG and F2G.