Introduction for pectin

Pectin as nonstarch polysaccharides, belongs to the dietary fiber. Due to the progress of science, nutrition study attaches importance to dietary fiber on human body.Therefore, pectin would be applied in food additives widely as thickner,gel agent and stabilizer in near future.

Specifications for pectin

1. Pectin is a polymeric carbohydrate, which is a natural component of the cell wall and the middle lamella in all green land plants. Hence, it has an important influence on the structural properties of fruits and vegetables.

2. Commercial pectins are white, light yellow or yellow powder without odour.

3. Generally, pectin is a linear polysaccharide chain which consists mainly of galacturonic acid units. The galacturonic acid molecules can be esterified with methanol. According to the degree of esterification (DE), pectin is classified into high methoxyl pectin (HM) with a degree of esterification higher than 50% and low methoxyl pectin with a degree of esterification less than 50% (LM).

4. When ammonia is applied in the alkaline de-esterification process, some of ester groups have been replaced by amide group. Therefore, LM pectin is divided into low methoxyl convertional (LMC) and low methoxyl amidated (LMA).

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