Abstract: | A Structure determination of the naturally occuring marine algal polysaccharide poly-β-D -mannuronic acid is described. The structure consists of 1e → 4e linked D -mannuronic acid chains with the monosaccharide units in the C1 chair conformation. The X-ray fiber diffraction photograph obtained from bundles of fibers prepared from Fucus vesiculosus has been indexed to an orthorhombic unit cell in which a =7.6 Å, b (fiber axis) = 10.4 Å, c = 8.6 Å, the unit cell containing two disaccharide chain segments with space group P212121. A sheet-like structure involving one intra-chain, one intra-sheet, and one inter-sheet hydrogen bond per monosaccharide is proposed. Features of the chain-packing arrangement are compared with mannan. |