Other and Natural Phenolic Compounds

Many phenolic compounds other than phenylpropanoids can be obtained from plants catechol, guaiacol, syringic acid, syringaldehyde, gallic acid, vanillin, and vanillic acid are obtained from plants. These phenolic compounds have become candidates for monomers used in the polymer industry. They undergo oxidative polymerization and serve as monomers for phenol-formaldehyde type resins, and some compounds having a hydroxyl group and a carboxylic acid serve as monomers for polycondensation. 

Kobayashi and his co-workers showed that the laccase-catalyzed oxidative polymerization of syringic acid (3,5-0-methyl substituted gallic acid) gave a 

Synthetic Green Polymers from Renewable Monomers 

Catechol (o-hydroxyphenol), guaiacol (o-methoxyphenol), and resorcinol (m-hydroxyphenol) can be extracted from plants or derived from other naturally occurring precursors. Dubey et reported the polymerization of 

The urushi lacquer has been used for more than 5000 years in China and it is known as a highly durable material. Polymerization of urushiol, the major component of the lacquer, involves laccase-catalyzed dimerization and aerobic oxidative polymerization, and the drying process takes a very long time. Several studies on shortening of this time have been carried out UV curing and hybridizing with other reactive polymers or monomers. Cardanol has a similar structure to urushiol, and the enzymatic oxidative polymerization of cardanol were reported by three research groups. The development of the polymerization process leads to artificial urushi . 

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