Polysaccharide sulphuric esters

Heparin is the sulphuric ester of a polysaccharide containing d-glucuronic acid and D-glucosamine. 

This is the sulphuric ester of a polysaccharide whose main constituents are D-glucuronic acid and N-acetylchondrosamine. The hyalin cartil e of vertebrates is a compound of chondroitin sulphate and a protein, the binding being between the -COOH and —SOgH groups of the chondroitin sulphate and the -NHj groups of the protein. 

In soils nearly 50% of the total sulphur is found in the hydroiodic acid reducible fraction , consisting of sulphate esters, which are probably in part polysaccharide sulphates (e.g. condroitin sulphate), keratin sulphates, choline sulphate, and arylsulphates (Zinder and Brock, 1978b). The heteropolysaccharide sulphates, which are also reported from msirine species (e.g. Torres-Pombo et al., 1969 Abdel-Fattah et al., 1973 Batey and Turvey, 1975), serve mainly as structural materials reaccessible to the marine sulphur cycle as SO ", depending on the ability of microorganisms, plants, and mammals to produce enzymes (sulphhydrolases) to hydrolyze these esters (Fitzgerald, 1978). 

Small quantities of inorganic sulphate are found in the body, and sulphuric acid esters of polysaccharides are present notably in the connective tissues. Sulphur also occurs in sulphydryl and disulphide groupings. The sulphydryl group is weakly acidic and can ionize... 

Soil polysaccharide also contains phosphorus and sulphur. The latter ranges from one S atom per 40-250 hexose units and it may be in the form of ester sulphate groupswhereas the phosphorus is usually of the order of 1%. It is considered that neither the sulphur nor the phosphorus form would contribute in any special way nutritionally. In fact they may be more closely associated with the peptide which appears to be covalently linked to the polysaccharide and it becomes a matter of definition as to what is encompassed by the term polysaccharide. 

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