Isolation of two glucodisaccharides from Japanese wines

Abstract

The composition of oligosaccharides in four varieties of Japanese white table wines was examined using two separation methods, charcoal column chromatography and paper chromatography. Laminaribiose and gentiobiose were isolated as the principal constituents of the oligosaccharides from all the wines tested. The concentration of each of these sugars in the wines ranged from 15 mg/ l to 25 mg/ l. When fermentation was done with a synthetic medium, these amounts of laminaribiose and gentioblose were also isolated from the fermentation broth using the same separation techniques. The results suggested that both sugars were released from yeast cells into the wines during the fermentation. The amounts of both sugars released from yeast were closely associated with the conditions of the fermentation and independent of the strain of the yeast used for the fermentation.