Inulin origin

A possible mechanism for the origin of the difructose anhydrides from inulin has been suggested by McDonald and Jackson7 in the following paragraph ... 

Compounds with different structures but with the same therapeutic activity isolated from different plant species act as active moieties for the treatment of particular diseases. Some of these compounds have been abandoned due to toxicity but these compounds apparently do not cause serious adverse effects. Some of these active principles originate from edible plants and their inclusion in the diet would undoubtedly be of some value because of their hypocholesterolemic potential. Several phytoconstituents including inulin, pectin, gugglu lipids, flavonoids, ginkoloids, saponins, tannins, and others obtained from various plant sources have proven hypolipidemic potentials as has been further explained in Tables I and II. The chemical structures of a few potential phytoconstituents with hypolipidemic activity are shown in Figure 2. It is hoped that as new additions are made to the list of these active compounds causing only minimum untoward side effects, these naturally... 

Inulin synthesis in the tubers occurs in the vacuoles of storage parenchyma cells. Kaeser (1983) proposed a model for the transport of sucrose into the central vacuole that involves the formation of vesicles within the cytoplasm that contain sucrose and inulin synthesis enzymes. The vesicles transfer their contents into the vacuole via two possible mechanisms (1) the cytoplasmic vesicle fuses with the tonoplast and through pinocytosis releases its contents into the vacuole, or (2) vesicles originating from plasmalemma invaginations are tied off into the vacuole, resulting in... 

This obvious structural difference between plant and bacterial inulin has its origin in the individual synthesis related system. Feedstock for both inulins is sucrose. However, the plant inulin production is a two-step reaction, starting with a sucrose-1-fructosyltransferase (1-SST). One sucrose molecule acts as donor and a second one as acceptor of a fructosyl unit. This leads to the formation of the trisaccharide 1-kestose. Catalyzed by a fructan-fructan-1-fructosyltransferase (1-FFT), fructosyl units are shuffled between the 1-kestose and higher polymeric p-(2 1) linked fructan molecules in the second step. Repetition of this step results in inulin with (3-(2 1) linkages only [129-132]. 

Simple carbohydrates (cellulose, starch, glucose, fructose, inulin, chitin, etc.) extracted from biomass, oligo- and polysaccharides of microbial or algal origin and derivatives thereof play a very important role in many sectors ranging from textiles and specialty chemicals to cosmetics, and food and feed industries. Large-scale carbohydrate-based processes in these sectors are well established and based on relatively simple chemical or biotechnological... 

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