A glyceride containing three ferulic groups was first synthesized in order to investigate intermolecular synergistic antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activity was evaluated via a radical-scavenging reaction of DPPH˙ radical. Although the scavenging capacities of both antioxidants, ferulic acid and glyceride tri-ferulate, were roughly equal, the apparent activation energy(Ea) of 19.50 kJ/mol for glyceride tri-ferulate is obviously lower than that of 28.80 kJ/mol for ferulic acid. The synergistic effect on Ea was further explained by a parallel π-π-stacking interaction.
