AbstractsChemistry

The research reported in this thesis on the chemical reduction of trimethyl gallic acid, (XLVI), is part of a larger project concerned with the nuclear hydrogenation of polyhydric phenols which is being carried out in the laboratories of the Division of Industrial and Cellulose Chemistry. Others (147, 148, 149) have worked on the catalytic hydrogenation of pyrogallol and gallic acid (XLV) and have successfully isolated some of the stereoisomers of the cyclohexane analogs of these aromatic compounds. the object of the present work is to study the chemical reduction of gallic acid (XLV) and trimethyl gallic acid (XLVI) by means of sodium and isoamyl alcohol. Complex polyhydric phenols are more or less readily available from the lignin portion of hard or soft wood or from bark. In Canada, where large quantities of lignin and bark are available as waste products from the forest industries, the production of useful chemicals from these materials might become of considerable economic importance. The study of the chemistry of the simpler polyhydric phenols might, therefore, open up important ways in which lignin and bark could be utilized.[...] It was one of the aims of this research, to determine under what conditions the reduction of the benzene ring of trimethyl gallic acid, (XLVI), could be accomplished while keeping hydrogenolysis of the bond between the ring carbon and the ether (or hydroxyl) oxygen at a minimum.