Potential applications of ferulic acid from natural sources

Abstract

Ferulic acid (FA), a ubiquitous natural phenolic phytochemical present in seeds, leaves, bothin its free form and covalently conjugated to the plant cell wall polysaccharides, glycoproteins,polyamines, lignin and hydroxy fatty acids. FA plays a vital role in providing the rigidity to the cell wall and formation of other important organic compounds like coniferyl alcohol, vanillin, sinapic, diferulic acid and curcumin. FA exhibits wide variety of biological activities such as antioxidant, antiinflammatory, antimicrobial, antiallergic, hepatoprotective, anticarcinogenic, antithrombotic, increase sperm viability, antiviral and vasodilatory actions, metal chelation, modulation of enzyme activity, activation of transcriptional factors, gene expression and signal transduction.

Keywords: Biological usages; Ferulic acid; Metabolism; Phytochemical; Shikimate pathway.

Fig. 1

Schematic representation of two different isomeric forms of ferulic acid found in nature (a) cis conformation and (b) trans conformation of ferulic acid.

Fig. 2

Schematic depiction of synthesis of ferulic acid and other aromatic compounds via shikimate pathway {PAL: phenylalanine ammonia lyase; TAL: tyrosine ammonia lyase; SAM: S-adenosyl methionine (acts as a methyl donor)}.

Fig. 3

Pathway for ferulic acid catabolism in S. paucimobilis SYK-6 (HMPHP-CoA: 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl-β-hydroxyprpionyl CoA).

Fig. 4

Pictorial representation of bioconversion of ferulic acid into vanillin.

Fig. 5

Different applications of ferulic acid. Ferulic acid known to exhibit a variety of biomedical, pharmaceutical and industrial applications.