[Procyanidin polymers, the crucial ingredients of the almond seed coat].
The seed coat of almond (Prunus amygdalus Batsch) contains up to 30% procyanidins with different degrees of polymerisation and, in addition, fatty oils, lignin, polysaccharides and cutin. Monomer units of dimers to tetracosamers are (-)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin. Prodelphinidins could not be detected. The dimers B-1, B-3, B-4, trimers and oligomers are soluble in acetone/water. The bulk material is large polymer, that is only soluble, by thiolysis, in thioglycolic acid. The large polymer procyanidins are crucial to the structure and attributes of the seed coat.
Biflavonoids↗