Ferulic acid is an important antioxidant found in food, beverages, supplements, and herbal medicines. However, its mechanism of absorption in the colon has never been examined, even though this is its main site of in vivo absorption. Ferulic acid was efficiently transported as the free form through an in vitro model for the colonic epithelium consisting of cocultured Caco-2 and mucus-producing HT29-MTX cells, with only a small amount transported as feruloyl-glucuronide or sulfate, together with some free dihydroferulic acid. This pattern of metabolism and permeation was also seen with the use of rat everted ascending and descending colon sacs. In the cell model, free ferulic acid permeated by passive diffusion, as judged by the linearity of the uptake over time and nonsaturable concentration dependence. The permeation was independent of tight junctions but strongly linked to the hydrophobicity of the different phenolic acids tested, suggesting a transcellular rather than a paracellular transport. Using inhibitors, we showed that only a small proportion (<20%) of the free ferulic acid transport was carrier-mediated. The production of metabolites in the basal chamber was lowered by 3-[[3-[2-(7-chloroquinolin-2-yl)-vinyl]phenyl]-(2-dimethylcarbamoylethylsulfanyl)methylsulfanyl] propionic acid (MK571) and increased by cyclosporin A, implying an involvement of multidrug resistance protein and P-glycoprotein transporters in the efflux of metabolites, respectively to the serosal and luminal sides. These results show that the form of ferulic acid available to the blood after passage across the colonic barrier would be mainly the free form, together with only a small percentage of conjugated and reduced ferulic acid.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
5
4%
Other
13
12%
Unknown
35
31%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 May 2025.
All research outputs
#3,283,577
of 29,385,863 outputs
Outputs from Drug Metabolism and Disposition
#106
of 3,046 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#8,431
of 99,762 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Drug Metabolism and Disposition
#2
of 25 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 29,385,863 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 88th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,046 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 99,762 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 25 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its contemporaries.
