The chemical structure of carminic acid consists of a core anthraquinone structure linked to a glucose sugar unit. Carminic acid was first synthesized in the laboratory by organic chemists in 1991.[6][7] In 2018, researchers genetically engineered the microbe Aspergillus nidulans to produce carminic acid.[8]
It was previously thought that it contains α-D-glucopyranosyl residue, which was later redetermined to be the β-D-glucopyranosyl anomer.[9]
^Atabey, Hasan; Sari, Hayati; Al-Obaidi, Faisal N. (28 April 2012). "Protonation Equilibria of Carminic Acid and Stability Constants of Its Complexes with Some Divalent Metal Ions in Aqueous Solution". Journal of Solution Chemistry. 41 (5): 793–803. doi:10.1007/s10953-012-9830-7. S2CID95406643.
^ abJan Wouters, Noemi Rosario-Chirinos (1992). "Dye Analysis of Pre-Columbian Peruvian Textiles with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Diode-Array Detection". Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. 31 (2). The American Institute for Conservation of Historic &: 237–255. doi:10.2307/3179495. JSTOR3179495.
^Allevi, P.; et al. (1991). "The First Total Synthesis of Carminic Acid". Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications. 18 (18): 1319–1320. doi:10.1039/C39910001319.
^Ishida, T.; Inoue, M.; Baba, K.; Kozawa, M.; Inoue, K.; Inouye, H. (1987). "Absolute configuration and structure of carminic acid existing as the potassium salt in Dactylopius cacti L". Acta Crystallographica Section C Crystal Structure Communications. 43 (8): 1541–1544. Bibcode:1987AcCrC..43.1541I. doi:10.1107/S0108270187091169.
^Fiecchi, Alberto; Galli, Mario Anastasia Giovanni; Gariboldi, Pierluigi (1981-03-01). "Assignment of the β configuration to the C-glycosyl bond in carminic acid". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 46 (7): 1511. doi:10.1021/jo00320a061. ISSN0022-3263.