ABSTRACT

All polysaccharides contain either a pyranose or a furanose carbohydrate ring structure. This common building block can, however, exhibit a wide range of structural properties and functional characteristics. Polysaccharides can be divided into several general categories. Structural polysaccharides include pectins, cellulose, xylan, and mannans. Storage polysaccharides include starch, glycogen, and the fructans-inulin and levan. The marine polysaccharides include alginate, carragenan, agar, agarose, chitosan, and chitosan derivatives. Bacterial polysaccharides include bacterial alginate, xanthan, bacterial dextran and fungal polysaccharides include pullulan, scleroglucan, and schizophyllan. Synthetic polysaccharides include cyclodextrins (Tombs and Harding 1998).