Table 1.

Components of dietary fiber

Fiber components	Principal groupings	Fiber sources
Non starch polysaccharides and oligosaccharides	Cellulose	Cellulose plants (vegetable, sugar beet, various brans)
	Hemicellulose	Arabinogalactans, β-glucans, arabinoxylans glucuronoxylans, xyloglucans, galactomannans, pectic substances
	Polyfructoses	Inulin, oligofructans
	Gums and mucilages	Seed extracts (galactomannans – guar and locust bean gum), tree exudates (gum acacia, gum karaya, gum tragacanth), algal polysaccharides (alginates, agar carrageenan), psyllium
Carbohydrate analogues	Pectins	Fruits, vegetables, legumes, potato, sugar beets
	Resistant starches and maltodextrins	Various plants such as maize, pea, potato
	Chemical synthesis	Polydextrose, lactulose, cellulose derivatives
	Enzymatic synthesis	Neosugar or short chain, guar hydrolyzate fructooligosaccharides, levan, xanthan gum, transgalactooligosaccharides, oligofructose, xylooligosaccharide, curdlan
Lignin	Lignin	Woody plants
Substances associated with non starch polysaccharides	Waxes, cutin, Suberin	Plant fibers
Animal origin fibers	Chitin, chitosan, collagen, chondroitin	Fungi, yeasts, invertebrates

(Tungland and Meyer 2002)