New studies on gum ghatti (Anogeissus latifolia) part II. Structure characterization of an arabinogalactan from the gum by 1D, 2D NMR spectroscopy and methylation analysis

The structure of a water soluble arabinogalactan isolated from gum ghatti (Gatifolia SD) was elucidated by methylation analysis and 2D NMR spectroscopy. The arabinogalactan fraction (F80) was obtained by a sequential ethanol precipitation of gum ghatti (Gatifolia SD). Methylation and GC–MS analysis indicated that F80 was a highly branched polysaccharide; the terminal sugar residues were about 40.8% of the total sugars. The majority of the terminal units were α-l-Araf, with small amounts of T-GlcpA, T-Arap, T-Rhap and T-Galp. About 14.2% of the total sugar residues were →6)-β-d-Galp-(1→ branched at 3rd and 4th positions. The linear portion of the arabinogalactan was composed of →4)-GlcpA(1→, →6)-Galp(1→ and →2)-l-Araf-(1→ linkages. Based on the results from methylation analysis, 1D (1H, 13C) and 2D (COSY, TOCSY, HMQC and HMBC) NMR spectroscopy, the structure of F80 was proposed as follows: