Biosynthesis of Phenylpropanoids and Related Compounds (FromAPRVolume 40)

Abstract

Phenolic compounds are ubiquitous in the plant kingdom. A main pathway for the formation of these compounds starts with the aromatic amino acidsl‐phenylalanine and – to a lesser extent –l‐tyrosine. In the general phenylpropanoid pathway, these are transformed to coenzyme A‐activated 4‐coumaric acid by phenylalanine ammonia‐lyase, cinnamic acid 4‐hydroxylase and 4‐coumarate CoA‐ligase. 4‐Coumaroyl‐CoA gives rise to a large number of different natural products, e.g. flavonoids, lignans, coumarins, tannins, hydroxycinnamic acid esters and amides as well as lignin monomers. This review gives an insight into recent findings concerning the general phenylpropanoid pathway as well as the biosyntheses of hydroxycinnamoyl conjugates, phenolic aroma and fragrance compounds, lignans, coumarins and gallo‐/ellagitannins.

Cobalt-CatalyzedE-Selective Isomerization of Alkenes with a Phosphine-Amido-Oxazoline Ligand

“…The phenylpropenoids, including 2-propenylbenzenes and 1-propenylbenzenes, are an important class of naturally occurring compounds, which have wide applications in pharmaceutical chemistry, pesticide, and flavor and fragrance industry . Employing this cobalt catalytic system, estragole ( 3a ), elemicin ( 3b ), methyl eugenol ( 3c ), and silyl-ethered eugenol ( 3d ) could be efficiently converted to trans -anethole ( 4a ), trans -isoelemicin ( 4b ), trans -methyl isoeugenol ( 4c ), and 4d , respectively, with 100/2 stereoselectivity under standard conditions in 1 min (Table , TOF = 2400 h –1 ).…”