Handbook of Carbohydrate Polymers

Book excerpt: Carbohydrates play an important role in many biological and biochemical processes, including the fertilisation, cell differentiation and maturation, protein folding and degradation. Carbohydrate polymers covers the study and exploitation of carbohydrate polymers which have current or potential industrial application in areas such as food, textiles, paper, wood, adhesives, biodegradables, biorefining, pharmaceuticals, and oil recovery. This book focuses on recent developments on carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) applications in the biomedical, biological and biotechnological fields. Furthermore, polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates that are made up chains of monosaccharide units linked by glycosidic bonds. This book reviews the literature on fibres spun from several polysaccharides and fibre spinning techniques, including both conventional fibre spinning methods and electrospinning. Resulting fibre properties and prospective applications are discussed. This book also reviews research on polysaccharide film-formation and characteristics, analysed mechanical and barrier properties of polysaccharide-based films, summarises applications of polysaccharide films in food products and makes conclusions as to the status of polysaccharide films and their future developmental direction. Other chapters in this book examine the pathways leading to the production of bioactive oligosaccharides that have biotechnological applications. The current progress in the development of marine carbohydrates into nutraceuticals and their applications are explored as well.