Approximate determination of the cell-wall complex of vegetables by enzymatic digestion

Abstract

The paper describes the results of experiments in which 12 different vegetables were treated with pepsin, trypsin or trypsin + diastase in buffer solutions. The effects of certain variations in the methods on the final results are also discussed. The purpose of the study was to find out whether it would be possible to develop a simple procedure that would yield a residue roughly corresponding to the cell-wall complex in readily soluble plant materials such as vegetables. However, such great differences were found in the solubility of hemicellulose and protein among the different materials that good results cannot be achieved by a uniform method, at least not without many correction determinations.