Application Note 8: Polysaccharide
chain analysis

Background
Sugar is a common energy source for many living organisms. It can be found in monomer form such as
glucose, linked in long chains such as starch, or anywhere in-between. Maltose is a disaccharide madeof two glucose molecules bonded by (14)-α- linkage and the main energy source for yeast whenfermenting beer. Maltodextrins are slightly longer and are considered to have approximately 3-20 glucose
molecules joined by glycosidic bonds, while starch is made of very long chains and are a common energy
storage molecule for plants. The (16)-α- linkage is found in branched starches. A starch molecule withprimarily linear chains made up of (14)-α- linkages is called amylose and starch that is highly branchedwith (16)-α- linkages is called amylopectin. If three glucose units are combined with one (14)α- linkage and one (16)-α- linkage you have panose. These linkages and the reducing protons canbe observed by 1H NMR on the Spinsolve spectrometer and allows one to infer information about chain
lengths and degree of branching of smaller polysaccharides.

Figure 1: The alpha and beta anomeric conformations of maltose are shown in the reducing unit.

Observing the anomeric protons in maltose
Maltose is a dimer composed of two glucose molecules. Like glucose, the reducing end glucose remains
mostly in the cyclic pyranose form in two conformational anomers shown in Figure 1. These two forms
interconvert via an aldehyde chain and can be observed by monitoring the 1H NMR resonances of theanomeric protons shown in red in Figure 1. The equatorial (alpha) anomeric proton resonates further
down field (5.3 ppm) from the axial (beta) proton (4.7 ppm) making these two anomer populations
distinguishable by 1H NMR even at low field (Figure 2).

4.34

4.69

5.28

5.39

Note: More information is available about the glucose anomeric proton in Application note #5, “Glucoseanomers”.

(1-4)-a-linkage
protonbeta - proton

HDO

5.6

5.4

0.62

1.38

alpha - proton

5.2

5.0

4.8

4.6

4.4
f1 (ppm)

4.2

4.0

3.8

3.6

3.4

3.2

3.0

Figure 2: 1H-NMR spectrum of maltose.

Observing (14)-α- linkage in maltose

The (1 4)-α- linkage is observed by the presence of the H-1 linkage proton NMR resonance at 5.36ppm
as demonstrated in the maltose spectrum (Figure 2). You will also see the anomeric proton peak of the
reducing unit at two positions relating to the equatorial (alpha) and axial (beta) anomers at 5.28 and 4.69
ppm, respectively.
The alpha anomeric proton and the (14)-α- linkage proton resonances are overlapping, so theycannot be integrated individually, but the total integral of the three peaks should be equivalent to 2.00
representing both H-1 protons from each glucose subunit in maltose. The alpha and beta equilibrium of
the reducing anomeric proton should be 36 and 64%, respectively. Therefore, if the total integral value
is fixed to 2.00 the individual integrals should be about 1.36 for the (14)-α- linkage and alpha H-1protons and 0.64 for the beta anomeric H-1 proton as shown in Figure 2.

Observing (16)-α- linkage in panose

There are two types of starch molecules present in cereal grains, amylose and amylopectin. Amylose hasmostly (14)-α- linkages and forms straight chains, while amylopectin is branched and has both(14)-α- linkages to form the chains and (16)-α- linkages at the branching points. Panose is aspecial trisaccharide with one (14)-α- linkage and one (1 6)-α- branching linkage, as seen below,
and is commonly used to demonstrate the NMR signature of each linkage.

H OH

4HO6

HO

H

H

O

OH

H

1

H

(1-6)-α-linkage

H O

4
HO6

HOH

HH

O

OH1

(1-4)-α-linkage

HO

H OH

46

HOH

H
HO

OH

1HOHFigure 3: Structure of panose showing the two different glucosidic bonds.

By looking at the 1H NMR resonance of the H-1 proton, it is possible to determine the linkages present(Gidley, 1985). Figure 4a shows the 1H NMR spectrum of the H-1 protons for both maltose (maroon) andpanose (blue). For panose, this region of the spectrum is composed of four resonances at 5.37, 4.98, 5.25,
and 4.67 ppm corresponding to the (14)-α- linkage, (16)-α- branching point, alpha reducing proton,and beta reducing proton. Maltose does not have a (16)-α- bond and therefore lacks the resonance at4.98 ppm.

4.59

4.67

4.98

5.25

5.37

MaltosePanose(1-6)-a-linkage(1-4)-a-linkage

5.6

5.4

5.2

5.0

4.8

4.6

4.4

4.67

4.98

5.37

Panose5.25

f1 (ppm)(1-6)-a-linkage(1-4)-a-linkage

beta H1

5.6

5.4

5.2

5.0
f1 (ppm)

0.68

0.98

1.34

alpha H1

4.8

4.6

4.4

Figure 4 (a) An over lay of maltose (maroon) and panose (blue) shows the presence and absence ofthe (1-6) bond and (b) the integrals of panose show the expected fraction for the two bonds and two anomers.

For panose the sum of the integrals should be equivalent to the number of glucose molucules in the chain(i.e. three). The linkages should be equal to 1, the alpha anomeric proton equal to 0.36, and the beta
anomeric proton equal to 0.64. Again, the alpha proton and the (14)-α- linkage cannot be resolved, so
their combined integral should be 1.36 (Figure 4b).

Measuring chain length
It is easy to measure the chain length of maltose and panose, but can this be applied to longer
polysaccharides called maltodextrins? A general structure for polysaccharides is shown in Figure 5,
where the chain length or degree of polymerization will be equal to n+2. Three maltodextrins of varying
dextrose equivalents were obtained, the hydroxyl protons were exchanged to simplify the spectra, with
deuterium and their 1H-NMR spectra were acquired. The beta-anomer proton peak was used to calibrate
the integrals. By setting this value to 0.64, the sum of the linkage and anomer integrals will be equal to thenumber of units in the chain. A comparison of all the spectra is shown in Figure 6. As the chains becomelonger, the anomeric protons becomes a smaller fraction of the signal, therefore there is a limit to the chain
length one can accurately measure.

Figure 5: Molecular structure of dextrin.

maltodextrin(DE = 4-7)

maltodextrin(DE = 13-17)
maltodextrin(DE = 16.5-19.5)
beta-anomer
calibration area
maltose andpanose

5.9

5.8

5.7

5.6

5.5

5.4

5.3

5.2
5.1
f1 (ppm)

5.0

4.9

4.8

4.7

4.6

4.5

4.4

4.3

Figure 6: An overlay of the three maltodextrins, maltose, and panose shows how the signal for the (14)-α- linkage
scales as the average chain length increases. The spectra were scaled using the beta anomer peak height.

The samples were also run at 300 MHz to confirm the integral values from well resolved NMR peaks. For
the most part, the resonances were well resolved from each other and the HDO peak, as shown in Figure
7. Even though the spectra are better resolved at 300 MHz than 43 MHz, the integrals are very similar(Table 1).

(1-4)-a-linkage

maltodextrin(DE) = 4-7
HDO

maltodextrin(DE) = 13-17
maltodextrin(DE) = 16.5-19.5

b-anomer
Calibration
region(1-6)-a-linkage
maltose andpanose

5.6

5.5

5.4

5.3

5.2

5.1
f1 (ppm)

5.0

4.9

4.8

4.7

4.6

4.5

Figure 7: An overlay of 300 MHz spectra of the three dextrins, maltose, and panose shows good spectral resolutionof each of the peak. The spectra were scaled using the beta anomer peak height.

Maltodextrins are usually created by hydrolysis of starch, either by enzyme or acid catalysis, resulting in apolydispersed mixture of chain lengths opposed to a single value. The degree of hydrolysis tends to bedescribed in dextrose equivalent, which is determined by measuring the reducing power of the digest as
a percentage of that expected for glucose (dextrose). Glucose therefore has a dextrose equivalent of 100,
maltose about 50, panose about 33 and starch about zero. From this a model can be created:
DE = 100/DP;
where DE is the dextrose equivalent and DP is the degree of polymerization or mean chain length. By
using maltose, panose, and three maltodextrins a plot of the degree of polymerization measured by NMR(mean chain length) versus the dextrose equivalent is created (Figure 8). The equation DE = 100/DP wasplotted over top of the data as a guide.

Polysaccharide

Dextrose
Equivalent (DE)Mean chain length
42 MHz (Spinsolve)

Mean chain length
300 MHzMaltose

52

2.0

2.0

Panose

33.3

2.9

3.1

Maltodextrin 1

16.5-19.5

6.0

6.6

Maltodextrin 2

13-17

7.2

7.1

Maltodextrin 3

4-7

1515

Table 1. The dextrose equivalent and measured mean chain length by NMR at 43 MHz and 300 MHz is listed foreach maltodextrin, maltose, and panose.

11010090Dextrose Equivalent (DE)80706050403020
1000246810Degree of Polymerization (DP)121416Figure 8. The dextrose equivalent was plotted against the mean chain length measured by NMR. The first point forglucose (1, 100) was inferred as the definition of dextrose equivalent. The green markers represent measurements
made 300 MHz and the blue 43 MHz. The measurements of degree of polymerization were the same at both 43 and300 MHz for DE = 1, 2, and 15.

Experimental
The samples were prepared by exchanging the hydroxyl protons with D2O and dissolving them back into
D2O for NMR analysis. Exchanging the protons reduces the HDO peak in the spectrum. The samples wereheated to >90 oC to shift the water peak up-field from the region of interest. Once the samples reach
90 oC, they are inserted into the Spinsolve and the spectrum was collected after waiting five times thelongest T1. The spectrum was acquired in a single scan usinga 90o excitation pulse. At 90 oC the HDO
peak shifts to about 4.1 ppm, which is mostly out of the range of interest. Spectra collected at 300 MHz
were run at room temperature.
Conclusion
It is possible to analyse the linkages and chain lengths of polysaccharides using a Spinsolve benchtop
NMR spectrometer. The (14) and (16)-α- linkages are observed by the presence of resonances at
5.4 and 5.0 ppm respectively. The number of glucose units is observed in small chain polysaccharides bycomparing the beta anomeric proton resonance integral with the linkage proton resonances. The dextrose
equivalent can be calculated from this chain length.

Reference:
Gidley, M. J. Quantification of the structural features of starch polysaccharides by NMR Spectroscopy. Carbohydrate
Research. 1985, 139, 85-93.

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