Analysis of structure of sugar-beet pectin by enzymatic methods.

The structure of alkali-soluble pectin (ASP) prepared from sugar-beet pulp was determined. ASP was sequentially degraded by pure galactanase, rhamnogalacturonase and arabinosidase and sugar compositions and NMR analysis of the products used to assign the following tentative structure to ASP: a backbone based on units of -->4)-alpha-D-GalpA-(1--> 2)-alpha-L-Rhap-(1-->, and side chains both of arabinan and of arabinogalactan.