Medline/PubMed Citation | Related Articles in PubMed | Download to Citation Manager

Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry (2001) 33, (53–59) (Printed in Great Britain)

PDF

Legacy HTML

Characterization of EDTA-soluble polysaccharides from the scape of Musa paradisiaca (banana)

T. Shantha Raju¹, Ramaswamykanive L. Jagadish and Yernool V. Anjaneyalu

Department of Studies in Chemistry, Manasagangotri, Mysore-570 006, India

Abbreviations used: WSP, water-soluble polysaccharide; ASP, alkali-soluble polysaccharide; AISP, alkali-insoluble polysaccharide; EDTA-SP, EDTA-soluble polysaccharide.

¹ Present address and address for correspondence: Analytical Chemistry, Genentech Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080, U.S.A. (e-mail sraju@gene.com).

The polysaccharide components present in the scape of Musa paradisiaca (banana) were fractionated into water-soluble (WSP), EDTA-soluble (EDTA-SP), alkali-soluble (ASP) and alkali-insoluble (AISP) polysaccharide fractions [Anjaneyalu, Jagadish and Raju (1997) Glycoconj. J. 14, 507–512]. The EDTA-SP was further fractionated by iso-amyl alcohol into EDTA-SP-A and EDTA-SP-B. The homogeneity of these two polysaccharides was established by repeated precipitation with iso-amyl alcohol, gel-filtration chromatography and sedimentation analysis. The polysaccharides were characterized by monosaccharide composition analysis, methylation linkage analysis, iodine affinity, ferricyanide number, blue value, hydrolysis with a-amylase, gold-electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Data from all of these studies suggest that EDTA-SP-A is a branched amylose-type a-D-glucan and that EDTA-SP-B is a highly branched amylopectin-type polymer. The nature of the branching patterns of these polysaccharides suggests that they are unique to M. paradisiaca.

Received 6 October 2000/15 November 2000; accepted 25 November 2000

Portland Press Ltd © 2001