SEED POLYSACCHARIDES AND THEIR ROLE IN GERMINATION. A SURVEY OF THE POLYSACCHARIDE COMPONENTS OF MUSTARD SEEDS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EMBRYOS

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Abstract
Methods were developed for the extraction, fractionation, and purification of the more soluble polysaccharides of mustard-seed embryos. One of these components was a pure homopolysaccharide, an araban, which was characterized by analysis, optical rotation, chromatography on diethylamino-ethylcellulose and electrophoresis; the hydrolysis products of the methylated polysaccharide were isolated and characterized by the formation of crystalline derivatives. These studies showed that mustard-seed araban is very similar to the family of pectic arabans, except that it is more highly branched than usual and contains a proportion of 1 [long dash] 2 linkages. A survey of the other polysaccharides of mustard seed, both in the embryos and in the seed coats, suggests a predominance of pectictype polysaccharides.