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The Chemical Structure of the Cell Walls of Higher Plants

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Dietary Fiber

Abstract

Without question, the fundamental chemistry of dietary fiber resides in the chemical structure of plant cell walls. These complicated networks of polysaccharide, structural protein, and phenolic substances are the basis of cell shape and integrity in plants and the slowly digested components that make up now-recognized important dietary supplements. Although the original definition of dietary fiber has been modified to include “soluble” as well as “insoluble” fibers, the recent advances in analysis of polysaccharide structure and survey of a wider range of higher plants have demonstrated that their chemistry is more complex than once imagined. Flowering plants alone comprise a broad range of orders that are grouped into two major evolutionary classes, the Dicotyledonae and Monocotyledonae (Fig. 1). In the Monocotyledonae, the order Graminales contains the cereal grasses that constitute the major foodstuffs of the world. In grasses, the primary cell walls are vastly different from all of the Dicotyledonae and other Monocotyledonae studied.

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Abbreviations

AGP:

arabinogalactan-protein

HS-GAX:

highly substituted glucuronarabinoxylan

GAX:

glucuronoarabinoxylan

PGA:

polygalacturonic acid

RG:

rhamnogalacturonan

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907, USA

    Nicholas C. Carpita

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  1. Nicholas C. Carpita
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    David Kritchevsky

  2. Astra Associates, Inc., McLean, Virginia, USA

    Charles Bonfield

  3. Veterans Administration Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

    James W. Anderson

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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York

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Carpita, N.C. (1990). The Chemical Structure of the Cell Walls of Higher Plants. In: Kritchevsky, D., Bonfield, C., Anderson, J.W. (eds) Dietary Fiber. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0519-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0519-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7846-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-0519-4

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