Sugar beet pulp, source pectin

To improve production of rhamnogalacturonase by Aspergillus aculeatus CBS 115.80 shake flask ejqjeriments were performed on several substrates. Cross reactivity was found after transfer to thamnose in combination with galacturonic acid and on apple pectin, citrus pectin, beet pectin and sugar beet pulp. No cross reactivity was found after transfer to meda containing simple carbon sources such as sucrose, glucose, fiuctose, rhamnose or galacturonic acid. 

Most of the European sugar production is based on the exploitation of sugar beet (SB) and the corresponding industrial process generates enormous amounts of pulp as a by-product. This rather intractable fibrous solid, mostly made up of polysaccharides and pectin, has found some uses as fatilizer and animal feed, but the possibility of converting it into a source of polymeric materials had eluded researchers until it was shown that this remarkably inert natural product could in fact be readily converted into a viscous liquid polyol by a simple bulk oxypropylation treatment [8, 9]. 

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