C. Gabriel, et all. Journal of Agroalimentary Processes and Technologies, Volume XIII, No.2 2007), 455-460 Communication – Food Science STUDY OF THE INTERACTION OF THE NEUROTOXIN Al(III) WITH QUINIC ACID Catherine Gabriel, Melita Menelaou, A. Salifoglou Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124 Abstract The importance of aqueous aluminum chemistry in biology relates to Al(III) involvement in many neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The biotoxic role of this metal in neurodegeneration is widely researched nowadays with as yet ambiguous results. In the present study, a new aqueous Al(III)-quinic complex was synthesized. The new species was characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic, and structural by X-ray analysis. Detailed aqueous speciation studies in the Al(III)-quinic system suggest the presence of a number of species, among which is the mononuclear [Al(C 7 H 11 O 6 ) 3 ] 0 complex. Keywords: aluminum, toxicity, quinic acid Introduction The presence of quinic acid in nature has been well established. It is present in the plant kingdom, where it constitutes a significant intermediate precursor in the synthesis of shikimic acid, which in turn is involved in the biosynthesis of various essential amino acids and specifically the aromatic ones (Stryer, 1997). Quinic acid has two important structural features: a) it is an α-hydroxycarboxylic acid. In that respect, it is similar to carboxylic acids present in quantities higher than that in a real biological system and b) it belongs to a category of cyclic polyols, which function as calcium carriers in biological systems. A natural consequence of such an active participation in biosystems is the tremendous impetus in studying the aqueous chemistry with biotoxic metal ions such as aluminum. That drive rides primarily on the chemical attributes of quinic acid of which most prominent appear to be the large number of functional groups that 455