Evidence for demethylation of syringyl moieties in archaeological wood using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
✍ Scribed by Pim F. van Bergen; Imogen Poole; Ticca M.A. Ogilvie; Chris Caple; Richard P. Evershed
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 135 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0951-4198
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✦ Synopsis
Archaeological oak (Quercus sp.) wood samples, ranging from 16 th C. AD to 6000 BP, were studied using flash pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to obtain insight into angiosperm lignin degradation. The pyrolysates revealed evidence of a number of 3-methoxy-1,2-benzenediol derivatives, methoxycatechols, directly related to 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, syringyl, moieties which are characteristic building blocks of angiosperm lignin. Mass spectra and mass chromatograms of these compounds are reported. The finding of these characteristic pyrolysis products in well-preserved archaeological wood provides unequivocal evidence that demethylation of syringyl units occurs very early in wood degradation. It is highly likely that the absence of abundant 3-methoxy-1,2-benzenediols in degrading plant materials containing angiosperm lignin relates to the lability of these newly formed moieties.