Molecular Weight Polysaccharides: Structure And Properties (Essay Sample)

LOW MOLECULAR WEIGHT DERIVATIVES OF POLYSACCAHRIDES:
STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES
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Introduction
Polysaccharides is a term generally used to describe linear or branched polymeric carbohydrates whose complex sequence of glycol heterogeneous linkages conjoin unison monosaccharide units. The fundamental monosaccharide building blocks usually hands down the different structural and chemical properties of various polysaccharide derivatives.
Much research has shown that polysaccharides can either exist naturally or synthetically. Microorganisms, plants and animals provides immediate source for naturally occurring polysaccharide derivatives, while their synthetic counterparts are obtained as a result of extensive research that involves modification of the structures and properties of natural polysaccharides built on structure-activity relationships and is aimed at acquiring much better functionally enhanced polysaccharides.
Molecular scientists usually pay meticulous attention to detail when working with polysaccharides as this is vital in determining their molecular weights, methods of modification and their electrolytic properties. Such information is particularly of fundamental importance for the recognition of their biotechnological commercial functions in addition to the living systems. Their applications may very well apply in the food industry, oil industry, and pharmaceutical and medical applications. This paper is meant to shed light on some low molecular weight derivatives (LMWD), their structures, physical and chemical properties as well as a couple of researches that have already been done on the same.
Structure and properties
Predominantly based on monosaccharide prototypes, more than ten isolated polysaccharide ingredients exist with the widest in the oligosaccharide range. Polysaccharides may be non-ionic or electrolytic in nature. Anionic polysaccharides have a standardized but a disorderly structure. Ionic polysaccharides are structurally arranged into different sections with asymmetric stations. Grouped into hydroxyl or distal carbons, the quantity of carbon (IV) oxide stereoisomers determines the complete asymmetries of the polysaccharides.
The most distinct low molecular weight electrolytic polysaccharides that researchers have been working on are heparin and cellulose.
Heparin polysaccharide and its derivatives
Low molecular weight heparin is an anticoagulant short chain polysaccharide. It encompasses glycosaminoglycan models generated by sulphated oligosaccharides. The introduction of “heparin derivatives have improved scientific choices for the management of thromboembolic disorders” (Harenberg and Casu 2009). A discrete research by the American Heart Affiliation, found out that “heparin derivatives this sort of as heparin sulphate proteoglycans have angiostatic qualities that will be valuable within the remedy and management of tumours.”
The most profound low molecular weight heparin byproduct is enoxaparin which has well-ordered benzylation and alkaline hydrolysis of unfractionated heparin and has the molecular formula C26H42N2O37S5. Enoxaparin has a formal charge of zero and is hydrophilic. It integrates a “double bond for the non-reducing end together with a 1,6-anhydromanno glucose and or mannose for the decreasing end” (Harenberg and Casu 2009).
Spinoffs of heparin have precise structural properties that exerts for their own biochemical and pharmacological profiles. Every spinoff has its own outstanding characteristic as a result of these variations.
Cellulose polysaccharide and its derivatives
It exists mainly in plant tissues and is mainly comprised of linear chain D-glucose models that integrates a molecular formulation of (C6H10O5)n. At temperatures of over a 100oC, cellulose disintegrates quickly to low molecular weight spinoffs which are essential in food items, pharmaceutical and industrial processes. Cellulose esters are odorless, tasteless and also water-soluble, just like their heparin counterparts thus offering them an appealing edge to be used in a number of industrial processes. Carboxymethylcellulose, methylcellulose, cellulose xanthate, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and hydroxypropylcellulose comprise selected esters of cellulose.
When a hydroxyl group is replaced by an ether group inside the presence of sulphuric acid, the resulting cellulose ether is carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). It is a product of chemical re...