Abstract:
The biological role of mucus-forming polysaccharides in flax seeds is to protect the oily endosperm from small amounts of water, but also to retain and to dose large amounts of water during germination.
Arabinoxylan is the polymer of xylose with lateral short branches of 1-2 arabinose units. This structure is very similar with the structure of dendrimers – hedgehog-like molecules, capable for molecular entrapment of other compounds in their large cavities. Unlike dendrimers, Arabinoxylan and Arabinogalactan are barbed-wire-like structure macromolecules, which also are capable to form large cavities.