Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Why do microorganisms
produce gums?
Most phytopathogenic bacteria do
not form spores. Many of them are
resistant to desiccation and survive
under dry conditions for more than 50
years at normal surrounding temperature. This is due to the protective layer
of the "ooze" or exudates produced by
the bacteria. The layer is nothing but a
coating of specific gum that is chemically a polysaccharide. This coating
may act as a barrier against attack
from bacteriophage, and also helps
identification of appropriate sites on
the host plant for colonization of the
bacteria. Xanthomonas campesths
synthesizes the xanthan gum.
Xanthomonas is a genus of the
Pseudomonaceae family. All organisms in this genus are plant pathogens. It is a Gram negative, yellowpigmented bacterium. The structure
of the ceJI envelope is similar to that of
Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide of great commercial significance, It is a cream coloured powder
that is soluble in hot or cold water with
a high viscosity even at low concentrations. The molecular weight of
xanthan is determined by light scattering, quasi-elastic light scattering and
band sedimentation analysis. These
methods however revealed a wide
variation between 2 million to 62 million in the molecular weight of xanthan.
The explanations for these variations
in the reported values
were provided by the
quasi-elastic light scattering techniques. Hydrogen
bonding appears to be
important in stabilizing the
aggregates of xanthan in
water. In 4 molar urea solution, a lower molecular
weight of 2 million was
obtained.
H.C
OH
OH
CHjOH
Backbone of
Xanthan
Xanthan gum is a
"heteropolysaccharide. The main chain
of xanlhan is built up of D-glucose
units linked through the fi-i position of
one unit with 4th position of the next
unit, a linear backbone identical to the
chemical structure of cellulose. The
primary structure of xanthan consists
of a pentasaccharide repeating units
(Figure 1). The presently accepted
structure of xanthan consists of ( 1 ^
4)-(5-D-glucopyranose units. Trisaccharide side-chains are attached to
alternate sugar residues on the main
chain at the C-3 position. The sidechain consists of two mannose residues and a glucuronic acid residue.
The terminal p-D-mannopyranose residue is (1 ^ 4) linked to the ^-D-giucuronic acid residue, that in turn is (1->
2) linked to non-terminal a-Dmannopyranose residue. The 6-OH
group of the non-terminal D44
Production of Xanthan
The biosynthesis of microbial
heteropolysaccharides such as
xanthan is a complicated process, involving a multienzyme system. The
initial step in the biosynthesis of
xanthan is the uptake of carbohydrate,
which may occur by active transport or
facilitated diffusion. This is followed
Industrial production
The selected microbial strain is preserved for possible long-term storage
by proven methods to maintain the
desired properties. A small amount of
the preserved culture is expanded by
growth on solid surfaces or in liquid
media to obtain the inoculum for large
bioreactors. The industrial scale production of xanthan \e carried out using
inexpensive substrates and nutrients.
Carbohydrate sources such as sucrose, sugarcane molasses, and whey
have been successfully used in the
production medium. The whey also
provides adequate nitrogen and some
growth factors. Efficient conversion of
carbon source to desired polysaccharide production requires a high carbon
to nitrogen ratio. Inorganic nitrogen
sources like ammonium or nitrate salts
CHEMICAL BUSINESS -f JULY 2006
they must be removed from the medium and this adds to costs. Generally, the fermentation broth is pasteurized or sterilized to kilt the cells. Pasteurization of the fermentation broth at
a high temperature often causes thermal degradation of the microbial
exopolysaccharides. When the broth
is treated under proper conditions (80ISCC, 10-20 min, pH 6.3-6.9) enhanced xanthan dissolution occurs
without thermal degradation and disruption of cells is observed.
In the laboratory method, the culture broth is diluted with 33% ethanol
to 100 cP (Centipoise, a unit of viscosity). The cells are removed by centrifugation and 1% KCI is added to the
broth. Precipitation of the gum is
achieved by the addition of 3 volumes
of chilled 95% ethanol. The lower
alcohols (methanol, ethanoi, isopropanol) and acetone, which are nonsolvents for the polysaccharide, can
be added to the fermentation broth not
only to decrease the solubility until
phase separation occurs, but also to
wash out impurities such as coloured
components, salts, and cells. Solvent
precipitation, precipitation using divalent metal ion salts of the polymer at
alkaline pH, precipitation as a
quarternary ammonium complex at
acidpH, or precipitation as fatty amine
complex at acid pH have been successfully attempted. Whole broth containing xanthan can be spray or drum
dried. However, the final product is
highly coloured because the bacteria
possess a yellow pigment. The gum
itself is colourless. The bacteria have
a yellow pigment in the wall, but it is
extractable only with organic solvents.
Unique Properties
Xanthan exhibits pseudoplasticity
(shear-reversible property) in aqueous solutions. This characteristic solution property of the xanthan gum can
45
A tight relationship
There is a special relationship between plant polysaccharides and
xanthan gum. A synergistic viscosity
rise is observed when the xanthan is
added to the solutions of plant polysaccharides such as locust bean gum and
guar gum. The galactomannans of
these gums link with helices of xanthan
to form a more rigid molecular struc-
Properties
Food Industry
Juice drinks, chocolates
pickles, fruit pulp.
Bakery products
Industrial chemicals
Agriculture
Ceramics
Paper manufacturing
Textile
damage.
Many Applications...!
The major applications of xanthan
gum are in food industry as a suspending and thickening agent for fruit
pulp and chocolates. United States
Food and Drug Administration have
approved Xanthan on the basis of toxicology tests for use in human food.
Many of today's foods require the
unique texturization, viscosity, flavour
release, appearance and water-control properties. Xanthan gum improves
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