Sugars removal from cell walls

Hydrogen fluoride can also be used to remove sugars from cell walls of plants. By immersing blocks of wood in a series of increasing concentra-... 

With few exceptions, small particles of vegetable foods are generally stripped of their more accessible nutrients during digestion in the GI tract. In this way starch, protein, fat and water-soluble small components (sugars, minerals) are usually well absorbed. This is not always the case, however, for larger food particles or for molecules that cannot diffuse out of the celF tissue. Neither is it the case for the lipid-soluble components. These need to be dissolved in lipid before they can be physically removed from the cell to the absorptive surface, since the cell wall is unlikely to be permeable to lipid emulsions or micelles, and the presence of lipases will strip away the solvating lipid. 

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