Table Of ContentTHE COMPLEX WORLD
OF POLYSACCHARIDES
Edited by Desiree Nedra Karunaratne
The Complex World of Polysaccharides
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/2947
Edited by Desiree Nedra Karunaratne
Contributors
Susana P. Miranda Castro, Eva G. Lizárraga Paulín, Stefan Kwiatkowski, Stefan Edgar
Kwiatkowski, Rosa Eugenia Reyes, Carolina Romo González, Rafael Coria Jiménez, Maribel
Ortiz Herrera, Alejandra Aquino Andrade, Tanya V. Ivashina, Vladimir N. Ksenzenko, Shauna L.
Reckseidler-Zenteno, Natalya Nikolaevna Trofimova, Elena Nikolaevna Medvedeva, Nadezhda
Viktorovna Ivanova, Yuriy Alekseevich Malkov, Vasiliy Anatolievich Babkin, Mona A. Esawy,
Eman F. Ahmed, Wafaa A. Helmy, Nahla M. Mansour, Waled M. El-Senousy, Mounir M. El-
Safty, Desiree Nedra Karunaratne, R.G.U. Jayalal, V. Karunaratne, Richard A. Cunha, Thereza A.
Soares, Victor H. Rusu, Frederico J.S. Pontes, Eduardo F. Franca, Roberto D. Lins, Aleksandr N.
Zimnitskii, V. Poinsot, M.A. Carpéné, F. Couderc, Ranieri Urbani, Paola Sist, Galja Pletikapić,
Tea Mišić Radić, Vesna Svetličić, Vera Žutić, Pierre Lembre, Cécile Lorentz, Patrick Di Martino,
Amit K. Ghosh, Prasun Bandyopadhyay, Alireza Alishahi, Rosa M. Raybaudi-Massilia, Jonathan
Mosqueda-Melgar, Marina Dello Staffolo, Alicia E. Bevilacqua, María Susana Rodríguez, Liliana
Albertengo, María Victoria Busi, Mariana Martín, Diego F. Gomez-Casati, Edmund M. K. Lui,
Chike G. Azike, José A. Guerrero-Analco, Ahmad A. Romeh, Hua Pei, Sherif J. Kaldas, John T.
Arnason, Paul A. Charpentier, María Josefina Carlucci, Cecilia Gabriela Mateu, María Carolina
Artuso, Luis Alberto Scolaro, Mohit S. Verma, Frank X. Gu, A. V. Dushkin, T. G. Tolstikova, M.
V. Khvostov, G. A. Tolstikov, Máira Regina Rodrigues, Alexandre de Souza e Silva, Fábio Vieira
Lacerda, Dodi Safari, Ger Rijkers, Harm Snippe
Published by InTech
Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Copyright © 2012 InTech
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Notice
Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and
not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy
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Publishing Process Manager Marina Jozipovic
Typesetting InTech Prepress, Novi Sad
Cover InTech Design Team
First published October, 2012
Printed in Croatia
A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com
Additional hard copies can be obtained from [email protected]
The Complex World of Polysaccharides, Edited by Desiree Nedra Karunaratne
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-51-0819-1
Contents
Preface IX
Section 1 Sources and Biological Properties of Polysaccharides 1
Chapter 1 Is Chitosan a New Panacea? Areas of Application 3
Susana P. Miranda Castro and Eva G. Lizárraga Paulín
Chapter 2 Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) Glucan Polysaccharides –
Occurrence, Separation and Application
in Food, Feed and Health Industries 47
Stefan Kwiatkowski and Stefan Edgar Kwiatkowski
Chapter 3 Mechanisms of O-Antigen Structural Variation
of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 71
Rosa Eugenia Reyes, Carolina Romo González, Rafael Coria
Jiménez, Maribel Ortiz Herrera and Alejandra Aquino Andrade
Chapter 4 Exopolysaccharide Biosynthesis in Rhizobium
leguminosarum: From Genes to Functions 99
Tanya V. Ivashina and Vladimir N. Ksenzenko
Chapter 5 Capsular Polysaccharides Produced by
the Bacterial Pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei 127
Shauna L. Reckseidler-Zenteno
Chapter 6 Polysaccharides from Larch Biomass 153
Natalya Nikolaevna Trofimova, Elena Nikolaevna Medvedeva,
Nadezhda Viktorovna Ivanova, Yuriy Alekseevich Malkov
and Vasiliy Anatolievich Babkin
Chapter 7 Antiviral Levans from Bacillus spp. Isolated from Honey 195
Mona A. Esawy, Eman F. Ahmed, Wafaa A. Helmy,
Nahla M. Mansour, Waled M. El-Senousy and Mounir M. El-Safty
Chapter 8 Lichen Polysaccharides 215
Desiree Nedra Karunaratne, R.G.U. Jayalal and V. Karunaratne
VI Contents
Section 2 Physical and Chemical Characteristics
of Polysaccharides 227
Chapter 9 The Molecular Structure and Conformational Dynamics
of Chitosan Polymers: An Integrated Perspective
from Experiments and Computational Simulations 229
Richard A. Cunha, Thereza A. Soares, Victor H. Rusu,
Frederico J.S. Pontes, Eduardo F. Franca and Roberto D. Lins
Chapter 10 Concept of Template Synthesis of Proteoglycans 257
Aleksandr N. Zimnitskii
Chapter 11 Coupled Mass Spectrometric Strategies
for the Determination of Carbohydrates at Very Low
Concentrations: The Case of Polysaccharides Involved in
the Molecular Dialogue Between Plants and Rhizobia 305
V. Poinsot, M.A. Carpéné and F. Couderc
Chapter 12 Diatom Polysaccharides: Extracellular Production,
Isolation and Molecular Characterization 345
Ranieri Urbani, Paola Sist, Galja Pletikapić,
Tea Mišić Radić, Vesna Svetličić and Vera Žutić
Chapter 13 Exopolysaccharides of the Biofilm Matrix:
A Complex Biophysical World 371
Pierre Lembre, Cécile Lorentz and Patrick Di Martino
Section 3 Applications in the Food Industry 393
Chapter 14 Polysaccharide-Protein Interactions and
Their Relevance in Food Colloids 395
Amit K. Ghosh and Prasun Bandyopadhyay
Chapter 15 Chitosan: A Bioactive Polysaccharide
in Marine-Based Foods 409
Alireza Alishahi
Chapter 16 Polysaccharides as Carriers and Protectors
of Additives and Bioactive Compounds in Foods 429
Rosa M. Raybaudi-Massilia and Jonathan Mosqueda-Melgar
Chapter 17 Dietary Fiber and Availability of Nutrients:
A Case Study on Yoghurt as a Food Model 455
Marina Dello Staffolo, Alicia E. Bevilacqua,
María Susana Rodríguez and Liliana Albertengo
Chapter 18 Plant Biotechnology for
the Development of Design Starches 491
María Victoria Busi, Mariana Martín and Diego F. Gomez-Casati
Contents VII
Section 4 Applications in the Pharmaceutical Industry 511
Chapter 19 Bioactive Polysaccharides of American Ginseng Panax
quinquefolius L. in Modulation of Immune Function:
Phytochemical and Pharmacological Characterization 513
Edmund M. K. Lui, Chike G. Azike, José A. Guerrero-Analco,
Ahmad A. Romeh, Hua Pei, Sherif J. Kaldas,
John T. Arnason and Paul A. Charpentier
Chapter 20 Polysaccharides from Red Algae:
Genesis of a Renaissance 535
María Josefina Carlucci, Cecilia Gabriela Mateu,
María Carolina Artuso and Luis Alberto Scolaro
Chapter 21 1,3--Glucans: Drug Delivery and Pharmacology 555
Mohit S. Verma and Frank X. Gu
Chapter 22 Complexes of Polysaccharides and Glycyrrhizic Acid
with Drug Molecules − Mechanochemical Synthesis
and Pharmacological Activity 573
A. V. Dushkin, T. G. Tolstikova, M. V. Khvostov and G. A. Tolstikov
Chapter 23 The Chitosan as Dietary Fiber: An in vitro Comparative Study
of Interactions with Drug and Nutritional Substances 603
Máira Regina Rodrigues, Alexandre de Souza e Silva
and Fábio Vieira Lacerda
Chapter 24 The Future of Synthetic Carbohydrate Vaccines:
Immunological Studies on Streptococcus pneumoniae
Type 14 617
Dodi Safari, Ger Rijkers and Harm Snippe
Preface
When I was invited by InTech Open Access Publisher to edit a book on
polysaccharides, I accepted the challenge since to me polysaccharides constitute a
wide variety of biological polymers with diverse composition, physical characteristics
and biological activity and have been the focus of my research career. These naturally
occurring entities have been studied for their chemical and physical properties and
more recently for bioactivity. They have been used in the food industry for functions
such as thickeners and protective coatings. Industrial uses of polysaccharides in
cosmetics, textiles and medicines are based on rheological, emulsifying and stabilizing
properties of polysaccharides. Even though carbohydrates have a long history of
chemical and physical study, properties of polysaccharides with relation to structure
activity/function has not been an area of in depth study. Polysaccharides of bacterial
origin however gained interest in the 1980’s due to their potential as vaccine
formulations. Therefore the detailed chemical structures of capsular polysaccharides,
LPS and exopolysaccharides were elucidated leading to discovery of new naturally
occurring sugars. The plant derived polysaccharides such as the hemicelluloses and
starch and other specific polysaccharides such as inulin, beta glucans, alginates and
pectins are very well documented and have been studied over a longer period of time.
Other than the chemical and physical properties of the polysaccharides, the genetic
involvements of the biosynthetic processes which imparts specificity to the structure
and thereby its action, have also warranted much study leading to a better
understanding of the structure activity relationship. Thus the areas of study of
polysaccharides cover several disciplines. In compiling this book, the contributions on
polysaccharides from diverse sources such as animals, plants and microorganisms
were received and sectioned according to their properties and applications.
The first section deals with sources of polysaccharides and their biological properties.
A wide range of polysaccharides from bacterial origin to plants and lichens are
presented along with their biological applications. The many applications of chitosan,
the most abundant polysaccharide of animal origin, in areas from food, medicine,
agriculture, pharmacy and other industries is revisited in the first chapter. The second
chapter focusses on glucan polysaccharides, abundantly produced by microorganisms,
having properties valuable in food uses. Here the yeast cell wall derived glucans and
their products with applications in the food and health industries are presented.
X Preface
Biosynthesis of Bacterial polysaccharides occurs through elaborate mechanisms. The
biosynthetic mechanisms leading to various structural changes in the O-antigens of
bacterial polysaccharides are discussed in chapter 3. Variations in structure of the
polysaccharides are shown to affect the biological properties and hence pathogenicity.
Chapter 4 considers the genetic control of the biosynthesis of exopolysacchrides of
Rhizobium leguminosarum. It is shown that diversity of the exopolysaccharides
biosynthesized results from genetic rearrangements of the glycosyl transferase genes
and other genes involved in translocation of the repeating units. The next chapter is
devoted to the study of virulence and pathogenesis due to the capsular
polysaccharides of Burkholderia pseudomallei . Several studies have been performed on
bacterial polysaccharides as candidates for vaccines and it has been shown that
virulence is due to changes in the capsular polysaccharide. Plant polysaccharides may
be used for specific applications. However, the extraction of polysaccharides from
plant waste products in timber industries with conversion of these polysaccharides
into useful byproducts is a novel application. Chapter 6 addresses this showing that
biomass obtained from large scale processing of Larch wood can be converted into
valuable materials with many biological applications. The biological applications of
the fructose rich levan polymer found abundantly in honey is discussed in the next
chapter. The section ends with a lesser studied polysaccharide source: Lichens
composed of a symbiotic relation between algae and fungi yielding polysaccharides
which have been investigated for biological significance indicating antitumour,
immunomodulatry and anti-inflammatory activities.
Chemical and physical characterizations are important aspects when dealing with
understanding the uses of polysaccharides in relation to their properties. The second
section discusses methods required for characterization and estimation of spatial
arrangement and results obtained therefrom. The five chapters in this section deal
with physical properties, methods of characterization and chemical analysis
techniques useful for structure determination of a range of polysaccharides from the
animal world (chitosan) to polysaccharides from microbes (diatoms). The structural
dynamics of chitosan, its conformation and its interactions with biological materials
starts off this section. The importance of conformation and molecular modelling is
known with drug design studies. Likewise the structural dynamics of polysaccharides
are useful for identifying interactions between polysaccharides and biological entities
as well as nanoparticles. The use of Quantum chemical methods to explain the
template synthesis of proteoglycans is described in the next chapter. Chapter 11 in this
section deals with some methods which are essential for elucidating the structure of a
polysaccharide. The focus is on the use of mass spectral analysis for determining
structures at very low concentration. Other than the basic techniques for chemical
characterization, the application of physico-chemical techniques such as laser light
scattering and atomic force microscopy is described in the characterization of diatom
polysaccharides. The final chapter on biofilm matrices deals with problems
encountered in isolation of the biofilm polysaccharides and reviews the chemical and
physical methods available.
