Table I.

Linkage analysis of the three primary fractions of flax seed mucilage

The three major mucilage fractions recovered from DEAE chromatography were carboxyl reduced with a water-soluble carbodiimide and NaBD₄ to produce 6,6-dideuteroglycosides that could be distinguished from their respective neutral monosaccharide by EIMS. Amounts of each monosaccharide were determined by GC-EIMS of alditol acetates, and the mole percentage of each linkage group was determined relative to total monosaccharide recovered. Values are means of two samples, with less than 5% variance for all linkage groups. nd, Not determined; tr, trace.

Linkage	Arabinoxylan	Arabinoxylan-RG I	RG I
	mol %
t-Fuc	3.0	6.2	15.0
t-Rha	tr	tr	tr
2-Rha	4.4	10.5	4.9
2,3-Rha	6.8	12.8	32.9
2,4-Rha	0.5	0.5	0.5
t-Araf	2.6	1.0	0.2
3-Araf	4.3	2.6	0.3
5-Araf	12.4	6.8	0.6
2,5-Araf	0.4	0.3	0.2
3,5-Araf	0.3	0.3	0.2
t-Xyl	9.5	5.0	tr
4-Xyl	16.3	10.9	1.1
2,4-Xyl	3.8	2.1	0.4
3,4-Xyl	0.6	0.3	tr
2,3,4-Xyl	13.3	9.0	0.5
t-Man	tr	tr	tr
4-Man	0.8	1.3	0.7
4,6-Man	0.1	0.1	tr
t-Gal	9.0	16.2	25.2
3-Gal	0.2	0.4	0.7
6-Gal	0.4	0.8	1.2
3,6-Gal	0.1	0.3	0.3
t-Glc	1.5	0.8	0.1
4-Glc	2.5	1.4	1.6
4,6-Glc	0.6	0.3	tr
t-GalA	tr	tr	tr
4-GalA	5.5	9.0	12.5
3,4-GalA	0.7	0.9	0.9
t-GlcA	0.4	0.2	nd