Oligosaccharides from animal polysaccharides

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous. Every organism contains some carbohydrate. Carbohydrates can range from a simple monosaccharide to a large complex polysaccharide. Polysaccharides in combination with proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids play an important role in many plant and animal metabolic systems. Carbohydrates have many roles in food systems, where they function to provide flavor, structure, and texture to food and nutritional benefits to the consumer. This chapter attempts to address the role of common plant monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides as ingredients in food systems by discussing their occurrence in plants, commercial processing, functionality, food uses, and healthful properties. 

Polysaccharides and oligosaccharides are widely produced in nature. Animals and plants are the most important producers in terms of volume, whereas microorganisms produce much wider diversity. Also, the small-scale structure, the proportion of different sugars and the type of linkage play an important role in the final properties of these biopolymers. Thus, applications of these poly- and oligo-saccharides are also very different, from low-to high-added value products. 

Industrial polysaccharides have traditionally been extracted from renewable resources in the plant and animal kingdom. Examples include starch and gums from plant seeds, pectin from fruits, and algin and carrageenan from algae. Recently, microbial sources have produced commercially useful polysaccharides such as dextran, curdlan, pullulan, xanthan, and pharmacologically active oligosaccharides. 

---