What is Ethyl vanillin？

Description

Ethyl vanillin is a homolog of vanillin with the formula (C2H5O)(HO)C6H3CHO. This colorless solid consists of a benzene ring with hydroxyl, ethoxy, and formyl groups on the 4, 3, and 1 positions, respectively. It is widely used in foods, spices, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

Uses

Based on the analysis of ethyl vanillin and vanillin could detect fraud in vanilla samples. If ethyl vanillin was detected in certain vanilla sugars indicating the non-natural origin of the vanilla flavor used since Ethyl vanillin is a synthetic organic compound. It is widely employed to enhance the fragrance of food products, such as cookies, beverages, chocolate, and candies. It can also be added to E-cigarette liquids as a flavor additive[1].

Biological function

Similar to allyl isothiocyanate, ethyl vanillin (EVA) is also a nonselective cation channel transient receptor potential ankyrin subtype family 1 (TRPA1) agonist which is expressed in neurons of dorsal root ganglia and trigeminal ganglia and also in vagal afferent neurons that innervate the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. They both require intracellular oxidation to activate TRPA1, but their mechanism is different[2]. 

TRPA1 shares many agonists with TRPV3 in particular including 2-APB, eugenol, carvachol, camphor, cinnamaldehyde, and vanillin. Ethyl vanillin could activate the nonselective cation channel TRPV3 which consists of the vanilloid (TRPV) subfamily of Transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels[3]. Other nonselective cation channels include TRPV1, TRPV2, and TRPV4. Ethyl vanillin is 5 to 10 times more potent compared to vanillin in terms of TRPV3 activation. The nonselective cation channels are expressed by sensory nerves (TRPV1, -2, -3) and skin cells (TRPV1, -2, -3, -4), and are mainly known for their activation by different temperatures, therefore defined as “thermo TRPs.”

As a TRP channel agonist, it can be used to study TRP channels in native tissues.

References

[1] Xia K, et al. Groove Binding of Vanillin and Ethyl Vanillin to Calf Thymus DNA. Journal of Fluorescence, 2017; 27: 1815–1828. 

[2] Wu S, et al. Ethyl vanillin activates TRPA1. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 2017; 362: 368-377. 

[3] Tóth B, et al. Role of TRP Channels in Skin Diseases. British Journal of Pharmacology, 2014; 171: 2568-2581.