Synthesis of Amylopectin

Abstract

NATURAL starch is a mixture of two components, which can be separated in a number of ways although it is doubtful if complete separation has yet been attained. The names, amylose and amylopectin, used earlier in a different sense, may be conveniently retained to describe the two components. Amylose, forming about 25 per cent of whole starch, is constituted of unbranched chains of glucose residues, the members being mutually linked by α-1: 4-glycosidic linkages. Amylopectin possesses for the most part the same 1: 4 glucose linkages and forms about 75 per cent of natural starch, but its chain structure is branched or laminated through the lateral linking of its shorter lengths of 1:4 glucose chains by certain α-1: 6-glycosidic bonds.