L-Arabinose is a useful sugar in the food industry. We demonstrate here simple methods for refining arabinan polysaccharides by alcohol extraction from prune, Prunusdomestica L., as a source of L-arabinose. Alcohol-soluble polysaccharides were purified from a solution of prune extracted by 80% ethanol. After fractionating the polysaccharides by ion-exchange chromatography, arabinans were identified as mainly constituted by (1→5)-linked arabinofuranosyl units.
