Table 1 Summary of analytical methodologies used to analyze suberin structure and composition

Wet Chemistry

Acid/base-catalyzed transesterification/methanolysis

Total suberin content, depolymerized components

[8,9,10, 53]

Microscopy

TEM

Lamellar structure of cell wall

[47]

SEM

Isolated suberin macromolecular structure

[46]

Confocal, fluorescence, histological staining

Suberin presence and relative abundance in cell walls and tissues

[48,49,50,51,52]

NMR

Solution-state NMR, solid-state NMR

Aliphatics, phenolics and glycerol are components of suberin

[43, 45, 69, 73, 166,167,168]

Solution-state NMR, solid-state NMR

Polyaromatic and phenolic composition, hydroxycinnamates including ferulic acid, lignin-like subunits

[75, 102, 169,170,171,172,173]

Solid-state NMR relaxation and dynamics studies

Two distinct methylene CH₂ environments identified with differing dynamics, aliphatic acylglycerols with mid-chain modified hydrocarbons found in more rigid core, saturated alkanols and alkanoic acids are more dynamic and spatially distinct

[69,70,71,72,73, 79, 174]

Solution-state NMR, gel-state NMR

Primary structure: how monomeric units are linked to polymeric / oligomeric units

[46, 74, 160]

Solid-state NMR

Overall superstructure and domain architecture

[70, 72, 79, 160]

Mass Spectrometry

GC/MS of depolymerized components

Phenolics, lipids, glycerol components as monomers

[9, 53, 57]

LC/MS of depolymerized components

Phenolics, lipids, glycerol components as monomers and oligomers

[54]

Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry of biomass

Fingerprinting for phenolics and lipid components, screening for thermochemical conversion paradigms

[59, 150]

Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry of soils

Fingerprinting for phenolics and lipid components, biomarker for plant species in soils

[60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68]

MALDI-MS

Suberin structure in tissue and separate hydrolysate analysis for phenolics, lipids

[56]