Abstract: | Cell wall material was isolated from the residue obtained after the extraction of sweet potato starch by treatment with the α-amylase. The wall material was fractionated by successive extraction with various reagents. The pectic substance was mainly composed of uronic acid (47.1%) residues and contained galactose as the predominant neutral sugar residues. The hemicellulosic fraction was further fractionated by precipitation with iodine in the presence of calcium chloride to give two fractions, a iodine precipitatable-iodine complex (HC-IP) and a supernatant solution (HC-IS). The HC-IS fraction had a higher glucose content (53.4%), whereas the HC-IP fraction had a high content of xylose residues (35.1%). The HC-IP fraction consisted mainly of xylan, as judged by the degradation with purified xylanase. |