Cereal Chem 45:550 - 556.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Structural Characterization of a Pentosan from the Water-Insoluble Portion of Durum Wheat Endosperm.

D. G. Medcalf and K. A. Gilles. Copyright 1968 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The arrangement of branching has been determined for a pentosan fraction isolated from the water-insoluble portion of durum wheat endosperm. Data from chemical and physical analysis, methylation and hydrolysis studies, periodate exidation, and Smith degradation experiments permit formulation of a detailed picture of the structure of this polysaccharide. The polymer consists of a main chain of D-xylopyranosyl units linked beta-1,4. L-Arabinofuranosyl side-chains are found attached to the 3- (single branches) and to the 2- and 3- positions (double branches) of the xylose chain. Three of five D-xylose units are branched, and almost half of these are branched at both the 2- and 3-positions. Branches occur predominantly on alternating D-xylose units. Occasionally two branched D-xylose units occur in succession. Very infrequently, three or four contiguous D-xylose units are branched.