Synthesis of amide compounds of ferulic acid,and their stimulatory effects on insulin secretion in vitro

We prepared amide compounds which were derived from ferulic acid using various amines, and investigated their stimulatory effects on insulin secretion using rat pancreatic RIN-5F cells. Most of these compounds exhibited significant promotion of the insulin-release at a concentration of 10 microM and in particular, the amides having n-butyl, n-pentyl, pyrrolidine, and piperidine groups showed high activity.