Analysis of linden flower mucilage.

Linden flowers are known to contain considerable amounts of mucilage. Quantitative determinations of these water soluble polysaccharides were carried out by viscosimetric measurements. It was shown that the mucilage after total hydrolysis in trifluoracetic acid was composed of D-galactose, L-arabinose and L-rhamnose and minor amounts of D-glucose, D-mannose and D-xylose. The high percentage of uronic acid (52%) was due to the presence of both, D-galacturonic acid and D-glucuronic acid. Fractionation of the mucilage polysaccharides on DEAE-cellulose resulted in a separation of five distinct polysaccharide fractions, which showed different sugar compositions and uronic acid content. The homogeneity of the polysaccharide fractions 1-5 was further examined by high voltage electrophoresis and analytical ultracentrifugation.