Phloroglucinol carboxylic acid, also called ‘Phloroglucinic acid’ or simply ‘PGCA’, is a trihydroxybenzoic acid, a type of phenolic acid. It can be encountered in nature where it is produced by plants or microorganisms. Structurally, the molecule can be perceived as Gallic acid in which the 2 hydroxy groups at positions 3 and 5 respectively on the benzene ring backbone have been moved “up” to positions 2 and 6, closely neighboring the carboxylic acid functional group. Salts and esters of PGCA (e.g. potassium salt or methyl ester) are known as Phloroglucinates.
It is produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens.Biosynthesis of Phloroglucinol. Jihane Achkar, Mo Xian, Huimin Zhao and J. W. Frost, J. AM. CHEM. SOC., 2005, volume 127, pages 5332-5333, It is a catechin degradation product excreted by the bacterium Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, a species of bacteria part of the human body normal flora, grown on catechin as sole source of carbon.M. Arunachalam, N. Mohan, R. Sugadev, P. Chellappan and A. Mahadevan: Degradation of (+)-catechin by Acinetobacter calcoaceticus MTC 127, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA), Volume 1621, Issue 3, 11 June 2003, pages 261–265, . It is also found in wine.C. García Barroso, R. Cela Torrijos and J. A. Pérez-Bustamante: HPLC separation of benzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids in wines, Chromatographia, Volume 17, Number 5, pages 249–252, .
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