Determination of the complex of cell wall substances in plant products

Authors

• L. Paloheimo Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Helsinki
• K. A. Vainio Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Helsinki

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.71647

Abstract

The authors present a new method for the determination of the complex of vegetable cell wall substances. The sample is extracted with boiling 80 % ethanol, boiling absolute ethanol and cold water. The residue corrected for ash, protein, and, if necessary, for starch, gives the amount of cell wall substances. Determinations were made of the same samples of which Salo in this department, using quite a different principle, has determined the cell wall complex. She determined separately cellulose, neutral sugar hemicellulose, uronic acid hemicellulose, and lignin. Adding up these items Salo obtained the total of the cell wall substances. The results obtained with the new method are in most cases in agreement with the results of Salo (Table 1). The 80 % ethanol seems to be a very efficient solvent. In most cases more than 35 % of the dry matter of the sample was dissolved by it, while only about 0.3 % was dissolved in the succeeding extraction with absolute ethanol (Table 2). 1—12 % was dissolved by water. The new method is compared also with the earlier method of Paloheimo in which the sample is boiled in 0.05 N hydrochloric acid. It appeared that the results obtained with the latter procedure are considerably lower than those obtained with the new method. Evidently most plant materials contain cell wall substances which are extractable with a very weak acid treatment.