Ferulic acid is a kind of hydroxycinnamic acid, which belongs to phenolic acid. Ferulic acid is widely present in plant cell walls and is an important structural component of cell walls. According to the structure, it is divided into two types: cis and trans. The vast majority of plant cell walls are trans ferulic acid, which is a fibrous crystal; cis ferulic acid is a yellow oily substance, which is less abundant in nature. Ferulic acid has a variety of physiological functions, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-virus, anti-radiation, anti-apoptosis, anti-cancer, etc., and has a good physiological health care effect. Ferulic acid has many applications in the food industry. It can be used as a natural food preservative to inhibit the peroxidation of fatty acids and inhibit the growth of microorganisms. In addition, polysaccharides rich in ferulic acid will gelatinize in the presence of peroxidase and hydrogen peroxide. This property can be used to gelatinize polysaccharides to prepare food gums. The molecular structure of pectin is relatively complex and consists of multiple domains, among which the most abundant domains are homogalacturonan (HG) and rhamnogalacturonic acid (RG).
Since natural beet pectin contains about 50% to 60% ferulic acid, many studies have taken beet pectin as the research object, and modified it with laccase or horseradish peroxidase, which can effectively promote The gelation of pectin increases the molecular weight of pectin, enhances the stability of the emulsion, and improves the viscosity of pectin. However, similar reports are rarely seen in white radishes. The preliminary research in the laboratory has found that ferulic acid is used to treat white radish. Radish will affect the pectin in its cell wall.