Herbal waste of processed medicinal plants of a local pharmaceutical industry was pretreated by steam explosion (160C for 0.5 – 2.0 h), and the process was accelerated by the use of Conc. H2SO4 (0.5 – 2.0%, 160 C for 0.5 – 2.0 h), NaOH (0.5 – 2.0%, 160C for 0.5 – 2.0 h). Significant increase in the content of reducing sugars was found after acid/alkali pretreatment of steam exploded herbal biom...

The present study was conducted on five ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk) cultivars (Komethry, Pakstany, Um-sulaem, Toffahy and Peyuan) grown in Saudi Arabia during 2005 and 2006 seasons. The aim of the present study was to investigate fruit properties (fruit weight, length, diameter, shape, specific gravity, seed weight, pulp percentage, total soluble solids (TSS), acidity percentage, TSS/acid, v...

A microtiter plate adaptation of the well-known dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) colorimetric method, for measurement of reducing sugars, is described. This method allows a substantial volume reduction of the reagents and a rapid analysis of a large number of samples, having an economic cost benefit and a positive impact on the environment. Therefore, it is well suited as an high-throughput techniqu...

An attempt was made to localize a number of O-methyl sugars in lipopolysaccharides and antigenic polysaccharides isolated from photosynthetic bacteria and from cyano-bacteria. Methylation analysis with [2H3]methyl iodide as methylating agent was the method of choice. One has to differentiate between (lipo-)polysaccharides having only trace amounts (less than 1% of polymer dry weight) of O-methy...

The accumulation of reducing sugars in potato tubers exposed to low temperatures occurs with concomitant formation of the enzyme invertase. During the initial period of cold treatment when reducing sugars increase rapidly, invertase formation proceeds until the level of enzyme exceeds that of an endogenous macromolecular invertase inhibitor, resulting in a basal invertase activity. As the rate ...