On the Carbohydrates in the Tea Flower

Abstract

The carbohydrates in the petal and stamen of the tea flower were divided into fourteen fractions, and free sugars and combined sugars of each fraction have been investigated mainly by the method of paper-chromatography, and the following results were obtained. (see Table 2)In both petal and stamen, glucose, fructose, sucrose, raffinose, stachyose and an unknown oligosaccharide were found as free sugars.In both parts, glucose, galactose, fructose, xylose, rhamnose were detected as the component sugars of glycosides or other complexes, and besides ribose and desoxyribose were found in the petal.Arabinose, galactose and galacturonic acid were detected in the petal as the components of hot 50% ethanol-soluble polysaccharides, and moreover, ribose and desoxyribose in the stamen.Almost any cold-and hot-water-soluble polysaccharides did not exist in the tea-flower.Arabinose in large quantity, ribose, galactose, xylose, galacturonic acid were detected in both parts as the component sugars of hot 0.5% ammonium oxalate-soluble polysaccharides.Arabinose, galactose, xylose, rhamnose, ribose were detected in the petal, and xylose, arabinose, desoxyribose in the stamen as the component sugars of hemicellulose.In the α-cellulose fraction, α-cellulose and a kind of galactan were detected in the petal and stamen respectively.