Abstract
1. The pectic substances of apple have been extracted and separated into a pure pectinic acid and a neutral arabinan–galactan complex by precipitation of the acidic component with ethanol and with cetylpyridinium chloride. 2. The composition of the fractions has been determined. The pectinic acid contained galacturonic acid, arabinose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose and several trace sugars. 3. Transelimination degradation of the pectinic acid gave rise to two components completely separable by zone electrophoresis and by Sephadex gel filtration. Analysis of these components confirmed that the pectinic acid molecules contained long chains of esterified galacturonosyl residues, but showed in addition that more neutral portions containing a high proportion of arabinofuranose residues were attached to them. 4. The identification of rhamnose, galactose and xylose in aldobiouronic acids obtained from a partial hydrolysate of pectinic acid has shown that these sugars are covalently linked in the molecule, and it is suggested that the galacturonosyl-(1→2)-rhamnose link is a general feature of pectinic acid structure. 5. The possible biological significance of pectinic acid structure has been discussed. 6. The arabinan–galactan complex contained nearly equal quantities of arabinose and galactose residues and some of its physical properties have been investigated.
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