Title
Structure of hemicelluloses upon maturation of bamboo (Neosinocalamus affinis) culms
Authors
BING ZHANG YING GUAN JING BIAN FENG PENG JUN-LI REN CHUN-LI YAO and RUN-CANG SUN

Received December 19, 2014
Published Volume 50 Issue 2 February
Keywords Neosinocalamus affinis bamboo, DMSO-soluble hemicelluloses, structural characterization, maturation, starch

Abstract
The DMSO-soluble hemicelluloses were obtained from the delignified one-, two-, and three-year-old bamboo (Neosinocalamus affinis) culms. Chemical composition analysis showed that the content of carbohydrates, lignin, extractives, and ash for differently aged bamboo culms had relatively small differences. The yields of hemicelluloses ranged from 6.53% to 9.78% of the holocellulose by the DMSO extraction. The GPC analysis revealed that the hemicelluloses had relatively high molecular weight and low polydispersity index, which indicated that they had a lower degree of degradation under the treatment with DMSO. The degree of acetylation values provided evidence indicating that DMSO-soluble hemicelluloses were highly acetylated. Based on the analysis of HPAEC, GPC, FT-IR, and NMR, the structure of bamboo hemicelluloses was barely changed during its maturation. The DMSO-soluble hemicelluloses mainly consisted of O-acetyl-arabino-4-O-methylglucurono-(1→4)-β-D-xylan, while relatively higher starch content was present in the DMSO-soluble fractions of the three-year-old bamboo culms.