Protocatechuic acid (PCA), also named 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid. It exists in the leaves of Euphorbiaceae ferns, llex and other plants, and it has antimicrobial effect.
Protocatechuic acid has a density of 1.54g/cm3 and a melting point of about 200 C. It is soluble in hot water, ethanol, ether, acetone and ethyl acetate, slightly soluble in cold water, and insoluble in benzene and chloroform. It decomposes in boiling water and releases carbon dioxide. Its aqueous solution is green when exposed to ferric chloride and dark red when exposed to sodium bicarbonate. Its appearance is like white powder, which changes color in the air.
Protocatechuic acid has a variety of uses. In medicine, protocatechuic acid has a variety of biological activities for different molecular targets. It has anti-bacterial, anti-oxidation, anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperglycemia and neuroprotective effects.
As for food and feed, protocatechuic acid is used as feed additive in livestock and poultry breeding to promote animal growth and development, improve feed conversion rate, improve carcass quality and meat flavor, comprehensively enhance animal immune function and defense ability against diseases, overcome toxic side effects of chemical synthesis of organic acids and food safety risks. It avoids the shortcomings of complex ingredients, inconvenient use and difficult control of quality standards of Chinese herbal medicine additives. It has an optimistic prospect of research and development and broad clinical application.
In addition, protocatechuic acid can also be used in the cosmetics industry.
Because protocatechuic acid is extracted from plants, it is difficult to form large-scale production because of its few extractable sources and low content. At present, domestic production enterprises basically adopt chemical process. However, the chemical synthesis of three wastes is large and unsafe. Nanjing Shunxiang Medicine produces protocatechuic acid by biological method (enzymatic method). This method is green, environmentally friendly and sustainable. Compared with chemical method, it has economic competitiveness and has good industrial application prospects.
In the future, protocatechuic acid produced by biological enzymes will be widely used in the above fields. For more information, please visit the website www.shunxiangchemical.com. For further information, please contact Tel, 025-86819868, E-mail, sales@jinchemical.com. |
