The Structures of Water-soluble Polysaccharides Isolated from Bamboo Shoot

Abstract

The structures of two polysaccharides reported in the previous paper were studied by means of methylation analysis and the Smith degradation. As a result, it was concluded that the water-soluble xylan consisted essentially of a (1→4)-linked β-D-xylopyranosyl chain and contained L-arabinofuranosyl residues linked through the C-1 as terminal side units. Unambiguous information concerning the residues of D-glactose and D-glucuronic acid as the constituents of the xylan has not been obtained. For the arabinogalactan, evidence was obtained for an interesting structure having a backbone chain of (1→3)-linked β-D-galactopyranosyl residues to which the terminal arabinose residues were attached at the C-6 position as the most prevalent side chains.