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The Wall‐Bound Phenolics of Chinese Water Chestnut ( E leocharis dulcis )
Author(s) -
Parr Adrian J,
Waldron Keith W,
Ng Annie,
Parker Mary L
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(199608)71:4<501::aid-jsfa608>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - ferulic acid , cell wall , chemistry , polysaccharide , phenols , monomer , phenol , chromatography , fraction (chemistry) , pectin , food science , biochemistry , organic chemistry , polymer
Chinese water chestnut (CWC) is a vegetable in which the edible storage parenchyma exhibits thermal stability to texture. This property has been attributed to the presence of large quantities of simple phenolics which exhibit pH‐dependent autofluorescence. The identities of the major phenolic components were assessed by reverse‐phase HPLC after sequentially extracting them with increasing strengths of alkali from purified CWC cell wall material. The levels of cold‐alkali‐liberated phenolics were very high (12·2 mg g −1 cell wall material). Ferulic acid dominated the monomeric phenol fraction (7·2 mg g −1 ), although small quantities of aldehydes were also released. A number of different diferulic acids were also identified, of which the 8‐ O ‐4′‐linked form was the major component (2·8 mg g −1 ), with 8,5′‐diferulic acid and the familiar 5,5′‐form also present in smaller quantities (910 and 988 μg g −1 , respectively). Hence, approximately 40% of the ferulic acid in the wall was present as dimers which are potentially available to form extensive, heat‐resistant cross‐links between polysaccharides within the wall, and between cells.