Tatsuro Ito

A gel-forming polysaccharide containing ferulic acid in protein-free form present in an aqueous extract of wheat flour

Abstract 1. 1. Rechromatography on a DEAE-cellulose column of the gel-forming glycoprotein fraction containing ferulic acid revealed that it was a mixture of three major components. 2. 2. Only a polysaccharide fraction (II-A) in protein-free form, consisting of 48.8% D-xylose, 41.4% L-arabinose, 1.8% D -galactose and 0.2% ferulic acid, had a gel forming property upon oxidation with H2O2. 3. 3. Analysis by specific optical rotation and nuclear magnetic resonance (n.m.r.) indicated that the polysaccharide had β- D - and α- L -glycosidic linkages and no ordered molecular conformation in aqueous solution.

Studies on the Mechanism of the Formation of Polysaccharides

Several experiments on Q-enzyme. of potato juice have been carried out to investigate the relation between the iodine-complex color of starch synthesized by various enzyme preparations, and their constituents. The results obtained are as follows: 1. The procedure to remove amylase from crude potato juice was examined. It was shown that active carbon treatment which had been adopted by us was the most effective for this purpose. 2. It is difficult to infer the formation of amylopectin by interpreting only the result of the observation of iodine-complex color of starch synthesized. 3. Characteristic differences of the color degree of iodine-starch complex among various starch fractions were observed with or without the use of the filter.