Smith degradation of gum exudates from some prosopis species

Abstract

The gum polysaccharides from two species of Prosopis, namely, P. glandulosa and P. chilensis, growing in different locations in South Africa, have been found to have similar structural features, closely resembling those reported in the literature for the gum of the North American species P.juliflora (mesquite). On smith degradation, both of the gums examined in the present study yielded a single polysaccharide product, having molecular weight 6,000, a value also found for the corresponding products from several Acacia species. Successive, Smith degradations of the polysaccharide produced by a sample of P. glandulosahave shown that a simple, (1-→3)-linked d-galactan is obtained after only two such degradations. This suggests the presence of uniform blocks of (1→3)-linked d-galactopyranosyl residues in the skeletal chain of the gum polysaccharide similar to those postulated for gums from Acacia species.