Lignins from three nonwoody angiosperms were analyzed by 2D NMR revealing important differences in their molecular structures. The Musa textilis milled-wood-lignin (MWL), with a syringyl-to-guaiacyl (S/G) ratio of 9, was strongly acylated (near 85% of side-chains) at the gamma-carbon by both acetates and p-coumarates, as estimated from (1)H-(13)C correlations in C(gamma)-esterified and C(gamma)-OH units. The p-coumarate H(3,5)-C(3,5) correlation signal was completely displaced by acetylation, and disappeared after alkali treatment, indicating that p-coumaric acid was esterified maintaining its free phenolic group. By contrast, the Cannabis sativa MWL (S/G approximately 0.8) was free of acylating groups, and the Agave sisalana MWL (S/G approximately 4) showed high acylation degree (near 80%) but exclusively with acetates. Extensive C(gamma)-acylation results in the absence (in M. textilis lignin) or low abundance (4% in A. sisalana lignin) of beta-beta' resinol linkages, which require free C(gamma)-OH to form the double tetrahydrofuran ring. However, minor signals revealed unusual acylated beta-beta' structures confirming that acylation is produced at the monolignol level, in agreement with chromatographic identification of gamma-acetylated sinapyl alcohol among the plant extractives. In contrast, resinol substructures involved 22% side-chains in the C.sativa MWL. The ratio between beta-beta' and beta-O-4' side-chains in these and other MWL varied from 0.32 in C.sativa MWL to 0.02 in M. textilis MWL, and was inversely correlated with the degree of acylation. The opposite was observed for the S/G ratio that was directly correlated with the acylation degree. Monolignol acylation is discussed as a mechanism potentially involved in the control of lignin structure.

The structure of lignins isolated from the herbaceous plants sisal ( Agave sisalana), kenaf ( Hibiscus cannabinus), abaca ( Musa textilis) and curaua ( Ananas erectifolius) has been studied upon spectroscopic (2D-NMR) and chemical degradative (derivatization followed by reductive cleavage) methods. The analyses demonstrate that the structure of the lignins from these plants is highly remarkable, being extensively acylated at the gamma-carbon of the lignin side chain (up to 80% acylation) with acetate and/or p-coumarate groups and preferentially over syringyl units. Whereas the lignins from sisal and kenaf are gamma-acylated exclusively with acetate groups, the lignins from abaca and curaua are esterified with acetate and p-coumarate groups. The structures of all these highly acylated lignins are characterized by a very high syringyl/guaiacyl ratio, a large predominance of beta- O-4' linkages (up to 94% of all linkages), and a strikingly low proportion of traditional beta-beta' linkages, which indeed are completely absent in the lignins from abaca and curaua. The occurrence of beta-beta' homocoupling and cross-coupling products of sinapyl acetate in the lignins from sisal and kenaf indicates that sinapyl alcohol is acetylated at the monomer stage and that, therefore, sinapyl acetate should be considered as a real monolignol involved in the lignification reactions.

The chemical structure of milled-wood lignins from Eucalyptus globulus, E. nitens, E. maidenii, E. grandis, and E. dunnii was investigated. The lignins were characterized by analytical pyrolysis, thioacidolysis, and 2D-NMR that confirmed the predominance of syringyl over guaiacyl units and only showed traces of p-hydroxyphenyl units. E. globulus lignin had the highest syringyl content. The heteronuclear single quantum correlation (HSQC) NMR spectra yielded information about relative abundances of inter-unit linkages in the whole polymer. All the lignins showed a predominance of β-O-4′ ether linkages (66–72% of total side-chains), followed by β-β′ resinol-type linkages (16–19%) and lower amounts of β-5′ phenylcoumaran-type (3–7%) and β-1′ spirodienone-type linkages (1–4%). The analysis of desulfurated thioacidolysis dimers provided additional information on the relative abundances of the various carbon-carbon and diaryl ether bonds, and the type of units (syringyl or guaiacyl) involved in each of the above linkage types. Interestingly, 93–94% of the total β-β′ dimers included two syringyl units indicating that most of the β-β′ substructures identified in the HSQC spectra were of the syringaresinol type. Moreover, three isomers of a major trimeric compound were found which were tentatively identified as arising from a β-β′ syringaresinol substructure attached to a guaiacyl unit through a 4-O-5′ linkage.