Thesis
The article concerns the synthesis of alkyl ferulates which is described as a result of the research under conventional heating and the microwave irradiation. The subject of the article is the capacity of antioxidant defenses, “the use of radical scavengers should be of critical importance to prevent and cure many diseases such as ischemia-reperfusion injury, neurodegenerative disorders and surgical organ transplantation” (Li 2118).
Introduction
In the current report I am going to analyze the issue of organic chemistry, in the news, namely the process of esterification and other processes related to this issue. For this purpose I have chosen the article “Highly Efficient Esterification of Ferulic Acid under Microwave Irradiation” represented by Nian-Guang Li, Zhi-Hao Shi, Yu-Ping Tang, Bao-Quan Li and Jin-Ao Duan. These people are the representatives of Jiangsu Key Laboratory for TCM Formulae Research of the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine; Division of Organic Chemistry of the China Pharmaceutical University; and Department of Medicinal Chemistry of the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine.
The article concerns the synthesis of alkyl ferulates which is described as a result of the research under conventional heating and the microwave irradiation. The subject of the article is the capacity of antioxidant defenses, “the use of radical scavengers should be of critical importance to prevent and cure many diseases such as ischemia-reperfusion injury, neurodegenerative disorders and surgical organ transplantation” (Li 2118).
Results and Discussion
As the research described in the article is mainly conducted with the implication of the microwave irradiation, the whole article deals mainly with the comparison of the procedure for the esterification of ferulic acid with conventional heating and microwave irradiation. “In recent years, microwave-assisted reactions have received a great deal of attention, because reactions under microwave irradiation are in general not only faster than with conventional heating methods, but also potentially more efficient, clean, and safe” (Li 2119).
The article describes the way of searching for the most appropriate catalyst, thus there was selected ethanol and then some amount of the concentrated sulfuric acid, which made the reaction of esterification complete after 5 minutes at 88 °C. I the process of esterification with the involving of the microwave heating the temperature of the reaction had an important role.
Experimental
The high temperature was not favorable for the reaction, because it led to the hydrolyzation of the ethyl ferulate. The reaction time of seven minutes gave the best results. After the phase of optimization of the molar ratio of ferulic acid to ethanol for the same reaction, the scientists got the result: “when the molar ratio was more than 1:6, the targeted product of ethyl ferulate was obtained in almost quantitative yield” (Li 2121).
Then the process of esterification involved the reaction of ferulic acid with other alcohols. But this time the reaction was observed during the process of microwave-assistance as well as the conventional heating. Thus the time of reaction in the process of esterification of ferulic acid and alcohols took more time than the same reaction conducted with the use of the microwaves. Also the number of atoms in the alcohol influenced the time of reaction, because other alcohols than ethyl were used. “Another interesting phenomenon was that similarly the yields of the alkyl ferulates turned to be much lower as the atom numbers of the alcohol became more” (Li 2122).
Conclusion
Then the authors of the article provide the description of experiments (general procedures with conventional heating, and with microwave irradiation) and analytical and spectroscopic data for some representative compounds and new compounds. The article represents a report on the process of esterification of ferulic acid with ethyl and other alcohols with the help of microwave irradiation. This article is of great importance, because the research on the reaction of esterification was conducted for the first time.
Works Cited
Li, Nian-Guang, and Zhi-Hao Shi, and Yu-Ping Tang, and Bao-Quan Li, and Jin-Ao Duan. “Highly Efficient Esterification of Ferulic Acid under Microwave Irradiation”. Molecules 14 (2009): 2118-2126. Web.