The complex carbohydrates apple pectin, citrus pectin, flaxseed mucilage, blood group A substance, gum acacia, and gum myrrh as well as an extract of RBC, when examined in a pattern test, were shown to inhibit the agglutination of chicken RBC by influenza A virus. A number of other simple and complex carbohydrates showed no inhibitory effect. The hemagglutination-inhibiting action of apple pect...

Pectin, a major component of the primary cell walls of dicot plants, is synthesized in Golgi, secreted into the wall as methylesters and subsequently de-esterified by pectin methylesterase (PME). Pectin remodelling by PMEs is known to be important in regulating cell expansion in plants, but has been poorly studied in cotton. In this study, genome-wide analysis showed that PMEs are a large multi...

To stabilize air-water interfaces, as in foams, the adsorption of surface-active components is a prerequisite. An approach to controlling the surface activity of proteins is noncovalent complex formation with a polyelectrolyte in the bulk phase. The molecular properties of egg white ovalbumin in a complex with pectin in the bulk solution and at air/water interfaces were studied using drop tensi...

(1) We investigated the trophic effect of pectin on the intestinal mucosa injured by formyl methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP), a chemoattractant produced by the intestinal bacterial flora. (2) We first demonstrated that oral administration of FMLP for 7 days reduced the disaccharidase activities and increased the permeability, measured by fluorescein-isothiocyanate-conjugated dextran, of ra...

The instability of polysaccharide/protein mixtures occurs because of either thermodynamic incompatibility or complexation. We studied which instability mechanism dominated given the external conditions. Therefore the effect of temperature, pH, and biopolymer concentration on the phase separation of pectin/caseinate mixtures was investigated. At pH > 6, thermodynamic incompatibility with spinoda...

The use of polysaccharides as DNA carriers has high potential for gene therapy applications. Pectin is a structural plant polysaccharide heterogeneous with respect to its chemical structure. It contains branches rich in galactose residues which serve as potential ligands for membrane receptors interaction. In order to make the anionic pectin applicable for DNA complexation, it was modified with...

Two Chinese jujube (Zizyphus jujuba) cultivars ('Huanghua' and 'Zhanhua') at unripe and ripe stages were investigated. During ripening, the weight, pH, hardness, and chewiness of both cultivars decreased while titratable acidity, total soluble solid content, and pectin contents increased. More than 75% pectins of the fruits were water-soluble pectin (WSP). Pectins shared the common major compos...

In addition to the role of the cell wall as a physical barrier against pathogens, some of its constituents, such as pectin-derived oligogalacturonides (OGA), are essential components for elicitation of defence responses. To investigate how modifications of pectin alter defence responses, we expressed the fruit-specific Fragaria x ananassa pectin methyl esterase FaPE1 in the wild strawberry Frag...

We performed a screen for genetic suppressors of cobra, an Arabidopsis mutant with defects in cellulose formation and an increased ratio of unesterified/esterified pectin. We identified a suppressor named mongoose1 (mon1) that suppressed the growth defects of cobra, partially restored cellulose levels, and restored the esterification ratio of pectin to wild-type levels. mon1 was mapped to the M...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of stabilization of retinyl palmitate (RP) on its skin permeation and distribution profiles. Skin permeation and distribution study were performed using Franz diffusion cells along with rat dorsal skin, and the effect of drug concentration and the addition of pectin on skin deposition profiles of RP was observed. The skin distribution of RP in...