Figure 1.

Chemical structures of β-glucans. The side branches of mushroom β-glucans (A) are attached to the β-1,3-D-glucan main chain by a β-1,6 linkage, and may consist of one or several β-D-glucose units; cereal β-glucans (B) are linear and consist of D-glucose molecules linked by 1,3 β- and 1,4 β- linkages.