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- New Publication at Audubon Sugar Institute
In the November 2022 edition of the Zucker Industrie journal, the “Fructan (Levan) is a more pervasive polysaccharide in the sugar industry than previously thought” article was published.
Fructan (levan) is a fructose polysaccharide connected by 2→6 glycosidic linkages but, compared to dextran, the amounts of fructan in factory products are much less known. By using a new enzymatic (research) method that incorporates newly available recombinant enzymes, which comes in kit form from Megazyme®, considerable amounts of fructan (>9000 mg/kg) were consistently found in final (C) molasses from Louisiana cane sugar factories. Fructan was observed to be strongly related to the recovery of sucrose in upstream and downstream factory products. Results also have, at least to a partial extent, explained why total polysaccharides are often much greater than haze dextran values in Louisiana.
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture