Abstract
Polysaccharides are used extensively in various industrial applications, such as food, adhesives, coatings, construction, paper, pharmaceuticals, and personal care. Many polysaccharide structures need to be modified in order to improve their end-use properties; this is mostly done through chemical reactions. In the past 20 years many enzyme-catalyzed modifications have been developed to supplement chemical derivatization methods. Typical reactions include enzymatic oxidation, ester formation, amidation, glycosylation, and molecular weight reduction. These reactions are reviewed in this paper, with emphasis placed on the work done by the authors. The polymers covered in this review include cellulosic derivatives, starch, guar, pectin, and poly(ethylene glycol).
Highlights
Polysaccharides are found in most agricultural products and residues
A good example of side-chain hydrolysis is the removal of galactose from guar using α-galactosidase [47,48], pullulanase [49,50], and pectinase [51]
In this review it has been shown that enzymatic reactions are useful methods for polysaccharide modifications
Summary
Polysaccharides are found in most agricultural products and residues. In addition to being major food items, polysaccharides have been used extensively for their functional properties, such as thickeners, gelling agents, stabilizers, interfacial agents, flocculants and encapsulants, in such applications as food, adhesives, coatings, construction, paper, pharmaceuticals, and personal care [1,2,3]. Enzymes are often chemospecific, regiospecific and/or enantiospecific, enabling the synthesis of products with well-defined or stereospecific structures [14,15,16,17] Another advantage is the mild conditions under which many enzymatic reactions can be done, often leading to products with less color or odor, and reduced levels of undesirable by-products. Several enzyme-catalyzed reactions of polysaccharides are reviewed, including ester formation, amidation, oxidation, glycosylation, and hydrolysis (Table 1). With these reactions, it is possible to carry out addition of specific functional groups onto polysaccharides, such as polar, charged, hydrophobic, or customized substituents, to reduce polymer molecular weight, or to cleave off unwanted substructures. Application thickener gelling agent emulsifier flocculant encapsulant stabilizer binder etc
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