Hemicellulose

Hemicellulose is a polysaccharide consisting of around 200 monomer units of different sugars,such as xylose (highest contents), mannose, galactose, rhamnose and arabinose, statistically distributed in the chain , which is branched. As a consequence, the material is amorphous, and has low mechanical and hydrolysis resistance. It is easily hydrolyzed by many hemicellulases enzymes from bacteria and fungi. Hemicelluloses are embedded in the cell walls of plants, bond with pectin (another carbohydrate) to cellulose to form a network of cross-linked fibres.