Polysaccharide enzymatic degradation

ENZYMATIC DEGRADATION OF A SOLUBLE HAIRY PECTIC POLYSACCHARIDE FROM SOY... 

To date, the structural features of pectic polysaccharides and plant cell walls have been studied extensively using chemical analysis and enzymatic degradation. In addition, research on isolation and physicochemical characterisation of pectin from citrus peels, apple peels, sunflower head residues and sugar beet pulp has been reported (2). However, the pectic polysaccharides extracted from wheat straw have only previously been reported by Przeszlakowska (3). The author extracted 0.44% pectic substances from Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. 

Further examples of enzymatically degradable drug formulation wrappings are capsule shells made of the polysaccharides chitosan [65,66] or cross-linked dextran [67]. 

YangXB, Gao XD, Han F, Xu BS, SongYC, Tan RX, Purification, characterization and enzymatic degradation of YCP, a polysaccharide from marine filamentous fungus Phoma herbarum YS4108, Biochimie 87 747-754, 2005. 

Atkinson, R.G., Schroder, R., Hallett, I.C., Cohen, D., and MacRae, E.A. 2002. Overexpression of polygalacturonase in transgenic apple trees leads to a range of novel phenotypes involving changes in cell adhesion. Plant Physiol. 129 122-133. Bach, E. and Schollmeyer, E. 1992. An ultraviolet-spectrophotometric method with 2-cyano-acetamide for the determination of the enzymatic degradation of reducing polysaccharides. Anal. Biochem. 203 335-339. 

Specific enzymatic degradation has been useful in determining the structures of pectins, gums and other plant polysaccharides (115), the mucopolysaccharides of higher animals (116), and other complex carbohydrates (117) including those from microorganisms 118, 119, 120). In these heterogeneous polymers enzyme treatment is most useful for deter-... 

The interest in enzymatic degradation of polysaccharides is strongly associated with their biomedical applications. The process is dependent on the polysaccharide structures and conformation. Enzymatic degradation of these biopolymers has received attention for many years and is becoming an attractive alternative to chemical and mechanical processes. 

Since the degree of polymerization of the polysaccharides is very important for their biological activity, strategies based on their enzymatic degradation can find application in developing new polysaccharide-based biomaterials. 

Huisman, M.M.H. H.A. Schols A.G.J. Voragen. Enzymatic degradation of cell wall polysaccharides from soybean meal. Carbohydr. Poly. 1999, 38, 299-307. 

Nakamura, A. H. Euruta H. Maeda T. Takao Y. Nagamatsu. Structural studies by stepwise enzymatic degradation of the main backbone of soybean soluble polysaccharides consisting of galactur-onan and rhamnogalacturonan. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 2002, 66, 1301-1313. 

It is more difficult to think of particulate organic material even as a mixture of simple organic compounds. Such simple compounds as are present are most likely adsorbed or absorbed, and will therefore be amenable to solvent extraction (e.g., lipids). The rest undoubtedly consists of polymeric material such as ceU wall detritus and polymerised simpler structures, which sort of material is more suited to chemical class analysis (polysaccharide, protein, etc.) usually after hydrolytic or enzymatic degradation into simpler forms. 

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