Partial Enzymic Degradation of Tamarindus-Amyloid

Abstract

HEATED cellulase of Myrothecium verrucaria ¹ degrades the amyloid of Tamarindus indica to a product which by means of paper chromatography (applying butanol/pyridine/water/benzene (5 : 3.2 : 3 : 0.45) as a solvent and developing for a week) appears to contain at least eight oligosaccharides, three of them occurring as the main products. These three oligosaccharides, A, B and C, could be shown to be a hepta-, an octa- and a nona-saccharide respectively, and are composed of 4 glucose residues, 3 xylose residues and 0, 1 and 2 galactose residues respectively. They are liberated in a molar ratio of roughly 2 : 5 : 6. The three oligosaccharides constitute a homologous series; this was confirmed by the facts that: (1) the values of log R _F/(1 − R _F) lie on a straight line when plotted against degree of polymerization¹, and (2) the values of [M]n/n, when plotted against (n − 1)/n, lie on a straight line as well².