Deuterated Hydroxystearic acids and their applications

Deuterium labelled compounds possess a wide range of applications in pharmaceuticals, environmental, materials and chemical sciences. They are useful in the investigation of bio-active molecules, giving detailed insights into the mechanism of chemical reactions. The deuteration of fatty acids, including stearic acid and its derivatives, permits to obtain reference or standard compounds for many purposes, including studies on metabolic pathways and analytical determinations. This paper refers to hydroxystearic acids, a class of compounds of interest in many applied fields focusing particular attention on the most used deuterium-labelling methodologies and related problems. An outline on the main applications of deuterated hydroxystearic acids is also done, critically discussing the examples taken from the literature. Furthermore, new results are presented concerning a simple protocol for obtaining D2 ‘in situ’: using the seeds of Dimorphoteca sinuata L. as natural precursor, and a lab-scale apparatus developed by us, we have verified the possibility to obtain deuterium-pluri-labelled 9-hydroxystearic acid.