Raffinose family

Thippeswamy, S. and Mulimani, V.H., Enzymic degradation of raffinose family oligosaccharides in soymilk by immobilized alpha-galactosidase from Gibberella fujikuroi, Proc. Biochem., 38 (2002) 635-640. 

Dr. French was a prolific contributor of research articles to professional chemical and biochemical journals. He published many reviews and methods articles in Annual Reviews of Biochemistry, Methods in Enzymology, Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry, Starch Chemistry and Technology, and The Enzymes. Two articles that were published in this Advances are The Raffinose Family of Oligosaccharides in Vol, 9 and The Schardinger Dextrins in Vol. 12. He was a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Carbohydrate Research, and of the Board of Advisors for Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry. 

Members of the raffinose family of oligosaccharides are present in appreciable concentrations in the nutritionally important food-legumes these are known to cause flatulence in man and other animals. Blair and coworkers144" quantitated the production of flatus in man,... 

Raffinose Family of Oligosaccharides Present in Some Food Legumes145... 

Distribution" of Galactinol and the Raffinose Family of Oligosaccharides in the Leaves of Various Plants" ... 

The main, physiological role of galactinol has been demonstrated as that of a D-galactosyl donor in the biosynthesis of the raffinose family of oligosaccharides35 293,2 6-298 (see Section VII,5). The high concentra-... 

The hydrolysis of members of the raffinose family of oligosaccharides by a-D-galactosidase yields D-galactose and sucrose. The equilibrium of this reaction favors hydrolysis therefore, the synthesis of these oligosaccharides through the back-reaction seems unfeasible. 

The a-D-galactosidase-catalyzed transfer of the D-galactosyl group of an a-D-galactoside to sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose may yield the raffinose family of oligosaccharides.44 The trans-D-galactosylase activity of a-D-galactosidase was demonstrated in 1950 by Blanchard and... 

Scheme 4.—Postulated Pathway for the Biosynthesis of the Raffinose Family of Oligosaccharides.

The level of the raffinose family of oligosaccharides has been shown to decrease during the germination of seeds of various species (see also, Ref. 12), notably, barley,618 broad bean,22 coffee,630 com,631 cotton,20,8318 lupin,632 pea,833,834 Pinus sp.,635,638 rice,637 runner bean,822 soy-... 

The enzymes involved in the degradation of the raffinose family of oligosaccharides are /J-D-fructofuranosidase and a-D-galactosidase, the levels of which increase during germination.12 French115 reviewed... 

The optical rotations of saccharides are of such great value in the identification of such substances, in following their reactions, and in the proper assignment of configurations, that almost invariably the report on the isolation of a new sugar will include optical rotation data. In the raffinose family, sufficient data have been accumulated that the present writer considers it worth-while to summarize and correlate the available information. The optical rotatory values are listed in Table VI. 

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