AUTHOR=Novais Leice Milla Ribeiro de , Ali Sher , D’Oca Caroline Da Ros Montes , Salome Kahlil Schwanka , Barison Andersson 

TITLE=Is there creatine in plants? The true compound behind the 1H NMR signal at 3.05 ppm in plant extracts

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Natural Products

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/natural-products/articles/10.3389/fntpr.2024.1360175

DOI=10.3389/fntpr.2024.1360175

ISSN=2813-2602

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Some papers describe the presence of creatine in plants, based on a singlet signal at 3.02–3.05 ppm in the <sup>1</sup>H NMR spectra. Although is there creatine in plants? Therefore, to answer this question, a comprehensive NMR investigation has been performed aiming the unambiguous assignment of the compound responsible for that signal.</p></sec><sec><title>Objective</title><p>Determine whether the compound behind the signal at 3.05 ppm is truly creatine or if it was just a misassignment, instead.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Samples of leaves and cherries from <italic>Eugenia uniflora</italic> in their natural swollen state were submitted to HR-MAS NMR analysis.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>It was found that the signal at 3.05 ppm was misassigned to creatine. The exhaustive NMR investigation revealed that the signal is related to the amino acid 4-hydroxy-<italic>N</italic>-methyl proline, instead.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The comprehensive NMR investigation revealed that there is no creatine in plants, it was just a misassignment.</p></sec>