Polysaccharides function

Polysaccharide functionality is a variant of the nature and distribution of the substituents. A polar substituent makes a polysaccharide less hydro-phobic, i.e., more hydrophilic, and vice versa. A uniform distribution of -CH2COO- on the cellulose primary structure results in smooth, nongrainy nonthixotropic sols. The probability of nonuniform substitution increases at a low level of substitution of cellulose-containing crystallites, because the reagent is unable to penetrate the crystallite, regions (DuPont). 

Dea, I. C. M. (1987). The role of structural modification in controlling polysaccharide functionality. In Industrial Polysaccharides Genetic Engineering, Structure /Property Relations and Applications, Yalpini, I. (Ed.), pp. 207-216. Elsevier, Amsterdam/New York. 

Polysaccharides function mainly either as structural components or as forms of energy storage. 

TABLE 1. Elemental analysis of polysaccharides functionalized with 9H-fluorenyl- and 5-indanyl carbamates. 

Tolstoguzov, V.B. (2004). Thermodynamic considerations on polysaccharide functions. Polysaccharides came first. Carbohydrate Polym., 54(3), 371-380. 

Morris, V.J. Gelation of polysaccharides. Functional Properties of Food Macromolecules Mitchell, J.R., Ledward, D.A., Eds. Elsevier Applied Science London, 1986 123. 

It is crucial for new microbial polysaccharides to conquer the market as commodity products to possess low cost of production or exploration in high-value market niches (e.g., cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and biomedicine) functional properties better than (or as good as) those of traditional polysaccharides functional properties that the traditional polysaccharides obtained from plants and algae may not have. 

Wolf B. 2010. Polysaccharide functionality through extrusion processing. Curr Opinion Colloid Interface Sci 15 50-54. 

---