Traumatic acid is a monounsaturated
dicarboxylic acid that occurs naturally in plants. The compound was first isolated from wounded bean plants by American chemists James English Jr. and James Frederick Bonner and Dutch scientist
Arie Jan Haagen-Smit in 1939.
[English J Jr., Bonner J, Haagen-Smit AJ: Structure and synthesis of a plant wound hormone. '']Science
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'' 90:329. (1939) Traumatic acid is a potent wound healing agent in plants ("wound hormone") that stimulates cell division near a trauma site to form a protective callus and to heal the damaged tissue. It may also act as a
growth hormone
Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in h ...
, especially in inferior plants (e.g.
algae). Traumatic acid is biosynthesized in plants by non-enzymatic oxidation of
traumatin (12-oxo-''trans''-10-dodecenoic acid), another wound hormone.
At normal conditions, traumatic acid is a solid, crystalline, water-insoluble substance. The salts and esters of traumatic acid are called traumatates.
Traumatic acid is used as an intermediate in
prostaglandin synthesis. It is also a constituent of some pharmaceutical products, such as the odontostomatologic gel Restomyl, due to its mucosal re-epithelialization activity.
References
Plant hormones
Dicarboxylic acids
Enoic acids