Carbohydrates: characteristic chemical polysaccharides

Characteristics due to chemical functionalities (e.g., carboxyl groups) of sample components that control solubility of the sample in aqueous media, viscosity of carbohydrate/polysaccharide solutions, and stability of obtained solutions. 

In both their industrial and biological functions, the 3-dimensional characteristics of carbohydrates are important. Many of these stereochemical features are described for carbohydrates in the classic text by Stoddart (2). The inqportance of stereochemistry is underscored by the unique chemical and physical properties of the individual sugars, many of which are configurational isomers. Stereochemistry also plays a role in detentlining the properties of polysaccharides. Molecular shape is as significant for the properties of an industrially modified starch as it is for the recognition of one particular blood type and the rejection of others. 

The study of the structure of nigeran, which is proceeding in this way, is an example of study of an important class of biological polysaccharide, namely, the ordered copolysaccharide. The antigenic characteristics of the pneumococcal polysaccharides are almost certainly related to the ordered arrangement of their copolymeric backbones and to the specific conformations that this order implies. Often, such polysaccharides have four carbohydrate moieties in their chemical repeat this would lead to a... 

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