Ferulic acid may be used as a nutraceutical ingredient or as a substrate to produce bio-vanillin. There is an increasing market demand for ferulic acid obtained from natural sources such as low-cost agro-industrial by-products, due to its potential applications as nutraceutical ingredient and as a substrate to produce bio-vanillin. This work aims to study ferulic acid recovery from corn fibre (one of the most abundant natural sources of ferulic acid), involving an integrated process of hydrothermal pre-treatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis. The objective is primarily to produce natural extracts with a maximum ferulic acid recovery yield, but it is also to assess their antioxidant and antiproliferative properties and their cytotoxicity.

Different commercial enzyme preparations were tested for release of ferulic acid from corn fibre. The best results were obtained for Ultraflo ®XL in a concentration of 2 % (w_{enzyme preparation}/w _{dry corn fibre}) at a pH of 5 and at 55 °C, presenting a recovery yield of esterified ferulic acid of 7.83 ± 1.35 % (w_{recovered ferulic acid}/w_{total esterified ferulic acid}), which corresponds to 0.13 ± 0.02 % (w_{ferulic acid}/w _{dry corn fibre}). When using a hydrothermal pre-treatment at a temperature of 140 °C for 40 min, prior to the use of the same enzymatic hydrolysis procedure, the recovery yield of esterified ferulic acid increased to 28.94 ± 2.40 % (w _{recovered ferulic acid}/ w_{total esterified ferulic acid}), which corresponds to 4.9 ± 0.3 % (w_{ferulic acid}/w_{dry corn fibre}). The use of this pre-treatment leads not only to the highest yield of ferulic acid, but also to the lowest concentration of furfural and hydroxymethylfurfural, without the formation of formic and levulinic acid (not detected). All pre-treatments tested led to an improved quality of the extract in terms of bioactivity.

阿魏酸可用作营养成分或用作生产生物香兰素的底物。由于阿魏酸作为营养成分和生产生物香兰素的底物的潜在应用，市场对从低成本农工业副产品等天然来源获得的阿魏酸的需求不断增加。这项工作旨在研究从玉米纤维（阿魏酸最丰富的天然来源之一）中回收阿魏酸，涉及水热预处理和酶水解的综合过程。目标主要是生产具有最大阿魏酸回收率的天然提取物，但同时也是评估它们的抗氧化和抗增殖特性以及它们的细胞毒性。

测试了不同的商业酶制剂从玉米纤维中释放阿魏酸。在 pH 为 5 和 55 °C 条件下，浓度为 2 %（含_酶制剂/_{干玉米纤维}）的Ultraflo ®XL 获得了最佳结果，酯化阿魏酸的回收率为 7.83 ± 1.35 %（ w_{回收的阿魏酸}/w_{总酯化阿魏酸}），对应于 0.13 ± 0.02 %（w_阿魏酸/w_{干玉米纤维}）。使用140°C水热预处理40分钟时，在使用相同的酶水解程序之前，酯化阿魏酸的回收率增加到28.94±2.40%（w_{回收阿魏酸}/ w_{总酯化阿魏酸}），相当于 4.9 ± 0.3 %（w_阿魏酸/w_{干玉米纤维}）。使用这种预处理不仅导致阿魏酸的最高产率，而且导致最低浓度的糠醛和羟甲基糠醛，而不会形成甲酸和乙酰丙酸（未检测到）。测试的所有预处理导致提取物在生物活性方面的质量提高。