CHARACTERIZATION AND OXIDATIVE CROSSLINKING OF SUGAR-BEET PECTINS EXTRACTED FROM COSSETTES AND PULPS UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS

Pectins have been extracted from sugar-beet cossetts by a sequential treatment with water, oxalate, hot dilute acid and cold dilute alkali, and from pulp with different conditiions of pH and temperature. All these samples have been chemically characterized and tested for their gelling capacity with persulfate. Pectins from cossetts have characteristics very close to those previously extracted in the same way but are not able to give gels by addition of persulfate. On the other hand, some, but not all, of the pectins from pulp can gel under these conditions. No simple relationship was found between the gelling ability and the chemical characteristics of the pectins.