Ammonia, hemicellulose extraction

In an attempt to improve the yield of hemicelluloses. Sands and Nutter subjected mesquite (Prosopis julifiora) wood to alternate extraction with alkali and delignification with chlorine and aqueous ammonia. The resulting fractions all consisted of a xylan whose average composition corresponded to one methoxyl group, one uronic acid residue, and ten xylose residues, or exactly the same composition as had been noted by O Dwyer for her oak xylan." ... 

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