Homogentisic acid

Homogentisic acid
Names
IUPAC name
(2,5-Dihydroxyphenyl)acetic acid
Other names
Melanic acid
Identifiers
451-13-8 Yes
ChEBI CHEBI:44747 Yes
ChemSpider 759 Yes
DrugBank DB08327 Yes
Jmol-3D images Image
KEGG C00544 Yes
MeSH Homogentisic+acid
PubChem 780
Properties
Molecular formula
C8H8O4
Molar mass 168.15 g·mol−1
Melting point 150 °C (302 °F; 423 K)
Except where noted otherwise, data is given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C (77 °F), 100 kPa)
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Infobox references

Homogentisic acid (2,5-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid) is a phenolic acid found in Arbutus unedo (strawberry-tree) honey.[1] It is also present in the bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli[2] as well as in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica[3] where it is associated with the production of brown pigments.

It is less commonly known as melanic acid, the name chosen by William Prout.

Human pathology

Accumulation of excess homogentisic acid and its oxide, named alkapton, is a result of the failure of the enzyme homogentisic acid 1,2-dioxygenase (typically due to a mutation) in the degradative pathway of tyrosine, consequently associated with alkaptonuria.[4]

Intermediate

It is an intermediate in the catabolism of aromatic amino acids such as phenylalanine and tyrosine.

References

  1. Paolo Cabras, Alberto Angioni, Carlo Tuberoso, Ignazio Floris, Fabiano Reniero, Claude Guillou and Stefano Ghelli (1999). "Homogentisic Acid: A Phenolic Acid as a Marker of Strawberry-Tree (Arbutus unedo) Honey". J. Agric. Food Chem. 47 (10): 4064–4067. doi:10.1021/jf990141o.
  2. Goodwin PH and Sopher CR (1994). "Brown pigmentation of Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli associated with homogentisic acid". Canadian Journal of Microbiology 40 (1): 28–34. doi:10.1139/m94-005.
  3. Alexandra Carreira, Luísa M. Ferreira and Virgílio Loureiro (2001). "Brown Pigments Produced by Yarrowia lipolytica Result from Extracellular Accumulation of Homogentisic Acid". Appl Environ Microbiol 67 (8): 3463–3468. doi:10.1128/AEM.67.8.3463-3468.2001.
  4. Phornphutkul C, Introne WJ, Perry MB et al. (2002). "Natural history of alkaptonuria". New England Journal Medicine 347 (26): 2111–21. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa021736. PMID 12501223.