The Partial Acid Hydrolysis of Polysaccharides: A New Method for Obtaining Oligosaccharides in High Yield

An apparatus is described for continually stepwise hydrolysis of polysaccharides. The oligosaccharides formed are separated by dialysis and collected on a charcoal-celite column. They are thus protected from further degradation and, at the same time, separated from monosaccharides formed. The period of each hydrolysis step, the length and temperature of dialysis, and the temperature of hydrolysis can all be independantly varied. Moreover, any acid can be used, mineral acids or substituted soluble resins. As examples the results obtained with dextran and some bacterial polysaccharides are discussed.