Abstract
STRUCTURAL studies of polysaccharides containing uronic acid residues involve the identification of the uronic acid and the determination of the manner in which it is joined to other sugar residues in the polysaccharide1,2. The identification of the uronic acid usually presents little difficulty if the modified methods of hydrolysis3,4, coupled with chromatographic analysis5,6, are applied. The nature of the linkage between the uronic acid residue and the other sugar components has been ascertained by periodate oxidation7 and by methylation studies. The former method is of limited application whereas the latter, which involves the identification of a methyl derivative of the uronic acid, has been widely employed2,8,9,10. The identification can be time-consuming when reference substances are not available, and occasionally it presents difficulty inasmuch as removal of the glycosidic methyl group, which often forms part of the identification procedure, is accompanied by decarboxylation and decomposition.
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ABDEL-AKHER, M., SMITH, F. Use of Lithium Aluminium Hydride in the Study of Carbohydrates. Nature 166, 1037–1038 (1950). https://doi.org/10.1038/1661037a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1661037a0
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