Preparation and properties of enzymatically and chemically modified sugar beet pectins

Sugar beet pectin was extracted from fresh sugar beet pulp and further deesterified by base, plant or fungal pectin esterase or esterified in acid methanol. The modified sugar beet pectins were characterised by chemical analyses, macromolecular and theological properties, capillary electrophoresis and enzymatic fingerprinting. The majority of the modified sugar beet pectins had the same molar mass and neutral sugar content except for loss of arabinose by prolonged acid hydrolysis. The ferulic acid content was almost stable at about 0.8%. It was found that the enzymatically modified sugar beet pectins were more inhomogeneous due to the presence of acetyl groups hindering the attack by pectin esterases. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.