Glucuronate degradation

Scheme 4. —Smith Degradation of Heparin (Arbitrary Sequence). (R = remnant from a D-glucuronic acid residue.)...

Xyloisosaccharinic acid [2,4-dihydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)butanoic acid] is one of the major, alkaline-degradation products of wood xylan, in particular, that of birch. The disaccharide, 2-O-D-xylopyranosyl-L-arabinose, which was isolated as a hydrolysis product of corn-cob hemicellulose, is readily degraded at 100° in 15 mM Ca(OH)2 to acidic products, primarily saccharinic acids. Xylan oligosaccharides from corn-cob hemicellulose produced 2,4-dihydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)buta-noic acid when exposed to 0.02 M Ca(OH)2 at 25°. However, it was noted that the xylan, itself, was stable at 100° in Af NaOH. The major acidic component of the hemicellulose fraction of slash pine Pinus el-liotti) after acid hydrolysis was identified as 4-O-methyl-D-glucuronic... 

On the assumption that methylation of the degraded arabic acid was complete, the location of hydroxyl groups in the various cleavage fragments indicates the positions through which the monosaccharide units are involved in union with the other residues. Thus the isolation of three molecular proportions of 2,3,4-trimethyl-D-glucuronic acid (VIII) and one molecular proportion of 2,3,4,6-tetramethyl-D-galactose (XI)... 

Investigations of the mechanism of decarboxylation of hexuronic acids have largely involved kinetic and tracer studies. When either D-xylo-5-hexulosonic acid or D-glucuronic acid is converted into 27 in acidified, tritiated water, the resulting 27 contains 18% and 15%, respectively, of the activity of the solvent as carbon-bound tritium.21 Further degradation studies showed that the isotope is situated on the furan ring at either position 3 or 4, or both these atoms correspond to C-3 or C-4 of the starting uronic acid. 

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