Abstract
Agave plants are members of the Agavaceae family and utilize crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) for CO2 fixation. Fructans are the main photosynthetic products produced by Agave plants, and are their principal source of storage carbohydrates. The aim of this work was to determine the chemical and molecular characterization of fructans from Agave durangensis. Fructans were extracted from 10 year old A. durangensis plants. Trimethylsilyl derivatization was employed to determine the monomer composition. The linkage types in these carbohydrates were determined by methylation followed by reduction and O-acetylation, and finally analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Samples were shown to contain t-β-D-Fruf, t-α-D-Glup, i-α-D-6-Glup and 1,6-di-β-D-Fruf linkages. The analysis of the degree of polymerization (DP) was confirmed by MALDI-TOF-MS, showing a wide DP ranging from 2 to 29 units. The analyses performed revealed that fructans from A. durangensis are formed of 97.11% fructose and 2.89% glucose, and are a complex mixture of fructooligosaccharides of the neo-fructan type containing principally β(2-1) and β(2-6) linkages, with branch moieties. Key words: Degree of polymerization (DP), GC-MS, MALDI-TOF-MS.
Highlights
Mexico has been considered the center of origin and biodiversity of the Agave genus, due to the taxonomic diversity found within its borders
The content of fructose and glucose was determined by gas chromatography coupled to mass (GC-MSof their TMS derivatives Carbohydrates are commonly analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) as their trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives
The percentages of glucose and fructose in the remaining fractions are shown in Table 1, these results show that fructans from A. durangensis contain fructose in a proportion higher than 90%
Summary
Mexico has been considered the center of origin and biodiversity of the Agave genus, due to the taxonomic diversity found within its borders. Members of the Agavaceae family are distributed throughout Mexico, and are well adapted to, both arid and semiarid regions (García-Mendoza and Galván, 1995) They have undergone both morphological and Abbreviations: DMSO, Dimethyl sulfoxide; TFA, trifluoroacetic acid; EtOH, ethanol; HMDS, hexamethyldisilazane; NaOH, sodium hydroxide; CH3I, iodomethane; NaBD4, sodium borodeuteride; NH4OH, ammonium hydroxide; N2, nitrogen; CO2, carbon dioxide; H2O, water; CAM, crassulacean acid metabolism; PAAMs, partially methylated alditol acetates; WSC, water soluble carbohydrates; DP, degree of polymerization; GC-MS, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; MALDI-TOF-MS, matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Orozco-Cortés et al 361 physiological adaptations to survive in such adverse conditions (López et al, 2003) One such physiological adaptation of the plant is the use of crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), which serves to minimize water loss (Santamaría et al, 1995) by opening stomata at night when the temperature is cooler (Nobel and Linton, 1997). Another work (Crispín-Isidro et al, 2015) reported that agave fructans enhanced sensory attributes of a reduced milk-fat yogurt
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