ABSTRACT
(14)C-Labeled phenylalanine, 4-coumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, ferulic acid, and methionine were applied to disks of green vanilla pods 3 and 6 months after pollination (immature and mature pods), and the conversion of these compounds to vanillin or glucovanillin was investigated. In mature green vanilla pods, radioactivities of 11, 15, 29, and 24% from (14)C-labeled phenylalanine, 4-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, and methionine, respectively, were incorporated into glucovanillin within 24 h. In the incorporation processes of methionine and phenylalanine into glucovanillin, some of the (14)C labels were also trapped by the unlabeled ferulic acid. However, (14)C-labeled 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol were not converted to glucovanillin. On the other hand, in immature green vanilla pods radioactivities of the above six compounds were not incorporated into glucovanillin. Although 4-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, and 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol were converted to the respective glucose esters or glucosides and vanillin was converted to glucovanillin, their conversions were believed to be from the detoxication of the aglycones. These results suggest that the biosynthetic pathway for vanillin is 4-coumaric acid --> --> ferulic acid --> --> vanillin --> glucovanillin in mature vanilla pods.
Subject(s)
Benzaldehydes/metabolism , Biosynthetic Pathways , Coumaric Acids/metabolism , Vanilla/metabolism , Benzaldehydes/chemistry , Coumaric Acids/chemistry , Propionates , Vanilla/chemistryABSTRACT
Thermoelectric energy conversion technology to convert waste heat into electricity has received much attention. In addition, metal oxides have recently been considered as thermoelectric power generation materials that can operate at high temperatures on the basis of their potential advantages over heavy metallic alloys in chemical and thermal robustness. We have fabricated high-quality epitaxial films composed of oxide thermoelectric materials that are suitable for clarifying the intrinsic "real" properties. This review focuses on the thermoelectric properties of two representative oxide epitaxial films, p-type Ca 3Co 4O 9 and n-type SrTiO 3, which exhibit the best thermoelectric figures of merit, ZT (= S (2)sigma Tkappa (-1), S = Seebeck coefficient, sigma = electrical conductivity, kappa = thermal conductivity, and T = absolute temperature) among oxide thermoelectric materials reported to date. In addition, we introduce the recently discovered giant S of two-dimensional electrons confined within a unit cell layer thickness ( approximately 0.4 nm) of SrTiO 3.
ABSTRACT
We have developed a unique multistep film growth technique, combining reactive solid-phase epitaxy (R-SPE) with an intercalation process, to fabricate epitaxial films of superconducting sodium-cobalt oxyhydrate, Na(0.3)CoO2.1.3H2O. An epitaxial film of Na(0.8)CoO2 grown on an alpha-Al2O3(0001) substrate by R-SPE was subjected to oxidation and hydration treatment, leading to the formation of a Na(0.3)CoO2.1.3H2O epitaxial film. The film exhibited metallic electrical resistivity with a superconducting transition at 4 K, similar to that of bulk single crystals. The present technique is suitable and probably the only method for the epitaxial growth of superconducting Na(0.3)CoO2.1.3H2O.
