β-hydroxypropiovanillone and its analogs can be obtained by chemoselective catalytic oxidation of lignin using 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone/tert-butyl nitrite/O2, followed by cleavage of arylglycerol-β-aryl ether with zinc.
In SYK-6 cells, β-hydroxypropiovanillone (HPV) is oxidized to vanilloyl acetic acid (VAA) via vanilloyl acetaldehyde (VAL). The resulting VAA was further converted into vanillate through the activation of VAA by coenzyme A.