Homo- and heteropolysaccharides

FIGURE 7-13 Homo- and heteropolysaccharides. Polysaccharides may be composed of one, two, or several different monosaccharides, in straight or branched chains of varying length. 

The animal and plant worlds have yielded some of the more fascinating carbohydrate-based polymers as homo- and heteropolysaccharides, as glycoproteins, as lipopolysac-charides, and as glycolipids, to mention a few. Blood group substances, antigenic determi-... 

Include both homo and heteropolysaccharides Starch and inulin are homopolysaccharides made from glucose and fructose, respectively. Arabinogalactan is an example for storage heteropolysaccharide. 

Table 4.2.1 Structure and Source of Common Homo- and Heteropolysaccharides...

Figure 8 represents one of the c-nmr spectra of heteropolysaccharides consisting of 3-deoxygenated and non-deoxygenated (l->6)-a-D-gluco-pyranan units obtained via copolymerization of [6] and [10].All peaks were superimposable on peaks of one or the other homopolymers. The a-C-1 resonance of each structural unit was completely separated from the other, and the copolymer compositions could be estimated from their area ratios. In the benzylated precursors, some of the resonances were split into two peaks whose intensity varied with copolymer compositions. The splittings are due to diad sequences between the two crossover units. This is evidence of randomly distributed copolymers. These homo-and heteropolysaccharides will serve as a tool to investigate properties and functions. 

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