MONO- AND OLIGO-SACCHARIDES IN THE BLUE-GREEN ALGA, TOLYPOTHRIX TENUIS

Abstract

Sugars contained in the blue-green alga, Tolypothrix tenuis, were extracted with 80% hot ethanol and purified. The combination of the charcoal-Celite colomn chromatography and paper chromatography was useful for the separation of two mono-, one di- and four oligosaccharides in the algal cells. The monosaccharides were identified as glucose and fructose and the disaccharide as sucrose. The oligosaccharides were considered to be a homologous series of glucofructan, consisting of glucose linked with increasing number of fructosyl units. The presence of such oligosaccharides could be demonstrated only in blue green algae but not in green algae so far tested.