A comparison of the reactivity of alginate and pectate esters with gelatin

Aqueous solutions of highly esterified propylene glycol alginate and gelatin interact rapidly in mildly alkaline conditions to form a gel with a very high melting point. The interaction involves the formation of amide bonds between the ester and uncharged amino groups on the protein.Neither high-methoxyl pectin nor highly esterified propylene glycol pectate formed thermostable gels with gelatin, and the lack of reactivity was not due to differences between pectate and alginate in viscosity, rate of depolymerisation or rate of saponification. Pectate esters will react, however, with low molecular weight diamines in anhydrous conditions.It is suggested that the different reactivity of the uronides in water reflects differences in the geometries of their glycosidic links between monomers, and that in alginate it is the mannuronic residues that are involved in these reactions.