127
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Gani, B. A. Ashwar (eds.), Food biopolymers: Structural, functional
and nutraceutical properties, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27061-2_6
Pectin
Nairah Noor, Asima Shah, Asir Gani, Adil Gani, Faiza Jhan,
Zanoor ul Ashraf, Bilal Ahmad Ashwar, and Tariq Ahmad Ganaie
Introduction
Pectin was discovered in apple juice by Vauque in 1790. The name has been derived
from the Greek word pektikos meaning to congeal or solidify and has been coined
by (Braconnot 1825a, b). However the production of pectin originated in the 1900s
in Germany where an apple juice processor tried to cook dried apple pomace, the
by-product from apple juice processing. Since then, pectin has been studied and
used extensively by scientists from different areas of science. In plant tissues, it is
linked to the other cell wall constituents including celluloses or hemicelluloses and
plays an important role in the plant growth and development. It forms an important
component in the young tissues of fruits and vegetables. It is mostly abundant in the
middle lamella layers between adjoining plant cells. Next to this, the primary cell
wall also exhibits a high amount of pectin. From the secondary cell wall of plants
towards the plasma, the concentration of the pectin goes on decreasing or is even
completely absent. Chemically, pectin is an anionic polysaccharide made up of
covalently linked α-1, 4-d-galacturonic acid (also known as galactosyluronic acid),
galacturonic acid constituting the main monomeric unit of the complex pectin molecule. The sugar acid, D-galacturonic acid (GalA) is an oxidized form of D-galactose,
and is present mostly as homogalacturonan (HG) and rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I)
structural elements. These units though linked by a-1/4 galacturonosyl linkage, are
often interrupted by L-rhamnose units bearing side-chains which result in discontinuity in the (GalA) polymer chain (Fig. 1).
As far as the sources of pectin are concerned, pectin is available in large number
of plant species but its commercial sources are few. The major source of pectin has
been apple pomace but nowadays use of citrus peel (Brejnholt 2009) is also
N. Noor · A. Shah · A. Gani (*) · F. Jhan · Z. ul Ashraf · B. A. Ashwar · T. A. Ganaie
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Kashmir,
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Gani, B. A. Ashwar (eds.), Food biopolymers: Structural, functional
and nutraceutical properties, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27061-2_6
Pectin
Nairah Noor, Asima Shah, Asir Gani, Adil Gani, Faiza Jhan,
Zanoor ul Ashraf, Bilal Ahmad Ashwar, and Tariq Ahmad Ganaie
Introduction
Pectin was discovered in apple juice by Vauque in 1790. The name has been derived
from the Greek word pektikos meaning to congeal or solidify and has been coined
by (Braconnot 1825a, b). However the production of pectin originated in the 1900s
in Germany where an apple juice processor tried to cook dried apple pomace, the
by-product from apple juice processing. Since then, pectin has been studied and
used extensively by scientists from different areas of science. In plant tissues, it is
linked to the other cell wall constituents including celluloses or hemicelluloses and
plays an important role in the plant growth and development. It forms an important
component in the young tissues of fruits and vegetables. It is mostly abundant in the
middle lamella layers between adjoining plant cells. Next to this, the primary cell
wall also exhibits a high amount of pectin. From the secondary cell wall of plants
towards the plasma, the concentration of the pectin goes on decreasing or is even
completely absent. Chemically, pectin is an anionic polysaccharide made up of
covalently linked α-1, 4-d-galacturonic acid (also known as galactosyluronic acid),
galacturonic acid constituting the main monomeric unit of the complex pectin molecule. The sugar acid, D-galacturonic acid (GalA) is an oxidized form of D-galactose,
and is present mostly as homogalacturonan (HG) and rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I)
structural elements. These units though linked by a-1/4 galacturonosyl linkage, are
often interrupted by L-rhamnose units bearing side-chains which result in discontinuity in the (GalA) polymer chain (Fig. 1).
As far as the sources of pectin are concerned, pectin is available in large number
of plant species but its commercial sources are few. The major source of pectin has
been apple pomace but nowadays use of citrus peel (Brejnholt 2009) is also
N. Noor · A. Shah · A. Gani (*) · F. Jhan · Z. ul Ashraf · B. A. Ashwar · T. A. Ganaie
Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Kashmir,
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India