Characterization of free sugars and xyloglucan-type polysaccharides of twotropical legumes

The major alcohol-soluble sugars in the dehulled flours of Detanium microca rpum and Mucuna flagellipes were glucose, fructose sucrose, raffinose and s tachyose. Sucrose was the predominant sugar. Extraction with 10% trichloroa cetic acid of the alcohol-insoluble residue gave a highly viscogenic mucila ginous polysaccharide complex, which upon anion exchange and gel permeation chromatographies gave a xyloglucan-type polysaccharide, having a 1,4-linke d D-glucan backbone with branch-off residues composed of 1,6-linked D-xylos e and some non-reducing terminal glucose moieties. The degree of branching was relatively high in D. microcarpum fraction. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.