ABSTRACT
Celluloses are the major components of plants comprising 20 percent to 45 percent of their cell wall mass, and as such, the most abundant organic compound on Earth. It enables trees to attain their great heights and yet it is, unbelievably, just a polymer of glucose. Major variations are in the degree of polymerisation which appears to be biphasic: either being less than 500 glucose units or between 2500 and 4500 glucose units per chain. The nutritional value of cellulose is virtually nil for higher animals except for ruminants because we do not have cellulase. Cellulases are found in snails, bacteria, fungi and insects. Lectins are used in the laboratory for affinity chromatography. Suppose a protein, in which were interested, had a large number of sugar groups on it and wished to purify the protein.
