Thermal stability of 5-o-caffeoylquinic acid in aqueous solutions at different heating conditions.

Chlorogenic acid is a naturally occurring phenolic compound found in all higher plants. This component, being the ester of caffeic acid with quinic acid, is an important biosynthetic intermediate and plays an important role in the plant's response to stress. Potential uses of chlorogenic acid are suggested in pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, feed additives, and cosmetics due to its recently discovered biomedical activity. This finding caused new interest in chlorogenic acid properties, its isomers, and its natural occurrence. It has been found that as many as nine compounds (chlorogenic acid derivatives and its reaction product with water) can be formed from 5-o-caffeoylquinic acid during the heating of its water solution. Three of them, two hydroxylated 5-o-caffeoylquinic acid derivatives and 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, have been not reported, yet. The amount of each formed component depends on the heating time and temperature. The presented results are important for researchers investigating plant metabolism and looking for new plant components. The transformation product can be mistakenly treated as a new component, not found before in the examined plant, or can be a cause of erroneous quantitative estimations of plant composition.