ISOLATION AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF NEW FRUCTANS PRODUCED BY CHICORY

This report describes a new series of oligosaccharides, which is formed in chicory roots under forcing conditions and during in vitro experiments using purified chicory 1-FFT (fructan:fructan 1-fructosyl transferase). It was demonstrated that the three smallest members of this new series (disaccharide, trisaccharide and tetrasaccharide) contain exclusively β-D-fructosyl residues after hydrolysis. The present data demonstrate that the smallest compound is levanbiose and that the other oligomers of this new series of fructans do not belong to the linear 2→6 linked levan-oligosaccharides nor to the linear 2→1 linked inulo-oligosaccharides. A combination of several chromatographic techniques yielded a fraction that contained only the compound with degree of polymerisation (DP) 2 (levanbiose, β-D-fructofuranosyl-(2→6)-D-fructofuranose), and a mixture of DP 3 of the new series and 1-kestose. Using homonuclear and heteronuclear 2D NMR experiments the complete ¹H and ¹³C NMR assignments of levanbiose and DP 3 were obtained. From High Performance Anion Exchange Chromatography (HPAEC) and NMR experiments of DP 3 of the new series it was concluded that the molecule contains a β-D-fructofuranosyl residue 2→1 linked to the non-reducing moiety of levanbiose, and thus has to be named β-D-fructofuranosyl-(2→1)-β-D-fructofuranosyl-(2→6)-D-fructofuranose. The simple and regular pattern of the HPAEC retention times of the new oligosaccharides suggests that it is a homologous series of oligomers build by 2→1 elongation with β-D-fructofuranosyl residues at the non-reducing residue of levanbiose.