Propionic acid

Absorption

Some propionic acid is oxidized to lactic acid during absorption, but most passes to the liver, which removes nearly all of it from the portal blood . Propionic acid represents 20-25% of absorbed volatile fatty acids .
Propionic acid is rapidly absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract .

Toxicity

As a compound that is typically found naturally in the body, little to no adverse cumulative health effects have been associated with exposure to propionic acid . Medical reports of acute exposures of workers to propionic acid show mild to moderate skin burns, mild eye redness, and one case of a mild cough and asthmatic response .

Description

First described by Johann Gottlieb in 1844, propanoic acid has become one of the most widely used additives in processed foods for human consumption and animal feedstocks. Originally, Gottlieb found the compound among the degradation products of certain sugars. The term – propionic acid – itself has the unique distinction of once being the designation for all fatty acids due to the writings of Jean-Baptiste Dumas, who, in 1847, postulated that all fatty acids were in reality just one compound. While larger chain fatty acids are important components of all living things, propionic acid is the shortest fatty acid that exhibits the classic behaviors of similar compounds.

The Uses of Propionic acid

Propionic Acid is the acid source of the propionates. propionic acid in the liquid form has a strong odor and is corrosive, so it is used as the sodium, calcium, and potassium salts as a preservative. these yield the free acid in the ph range of the food in which they are used. it functions principally against mold. see calcium propionate; sodium propionate.

Indications

Propanoic acid and various direct sodium or calcium salt formulations of the acid are currently most commonly approved and indicated by organizations like the FDA and EMA for use as an antibacterial food additive preservative in animal feed and food for human consumption .
Similarly, although the use of propanoic acid or any of its direct sodium or calcium salt formulations as excipient ingredients in pharmaceuticals is not necessarily a major role for the compound today, sodium propionate was used in some vaginal cream preparations indicated for cervicitis, cervical tears, and/or postcauterization, postcryosurgery, and postconization of the cervix . In such products, the sodium propionate was primarily used to elicit a preservative, bacteriostatic effect while other active ingredients combined in the formulation like urea, benzalkonium chloride, inositol, and methionine and cystine amino acids facilitated debridement, enhanced medication spread, epithelialization promotion, and wound healing, respectively .
Nevertheless, a great variety of propionic acid derivatives exist as separate pharmaceuticals, each with their own unique therapeutic categories, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacokinetics.

What are the applications of Application

Propionic acid solution is an eluent and buffer component in chromatography applications

Background

Sodium propionate is the sodium salt of propionic acid that exists as colorless, transparent crystals or a granular crystalline powder. It is considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS) food ingredient by FDA, where it acts as an antimicrobial agent for food preservation and flavoring agent. Its use as a food additive is also approved in Europe. Sodium propionate is is prepared by neutralizing propionic acid with sodium hydroxide. Sodium propionate was previously approved in Canada as an active ingredient in Amino-Cerv (used to treat inflammation or injury of the cervix).

Pharmacokinetics

As a naturally occurring carboxylic acid, propionic acid typically undergoes metabolism via conversion to propionyl coenzyme A (propionyl-CoA), which is part of the usual metabolic pathway that carboxylic acids participate within in the human body . Most of propionic acid's antibacterial and preservative activities subsequently stem from this metabolic pathway as the metabolic fate of propionates varies in different microorganisms, resulting in antimicrobial mechanisms of action that may revolve around differing propionate metabolites causing competition, inhibition, and/or interference effects along other metabolic pathways in the various microorganisms affected .
In the human body, however, propionic acid is generally metabolized with little ill effect and ultimately becomes a chemical intermediate in the citric acid cycle .

Metabolism

Propionic acid is first converted to propionyl coenzyme A (propionyl-CoA), however, it directly enter either beta oxidation or the citric acid cycles . As propionic acid has three carbons, propionyl-CoA . In the majority of vertebrates, propionyl-CoA is carboxylated to D-methylmalonyl-CoA, which is then isomerised to L-methylmalonyl-CoA . A vitamin B12-dependent enzyme catalyzes rearrangement of L-methylmalonyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA, which can then be used as a substrate in the citric acid cycle .