Agaro- and carra-oligosaccharides were produced by partial acid hydrolysis of commercial agarose and kappa-carrageenan. Di- and tetrasaccharides were purified by gel filtration chromatography and characterized by NMR (1D and 2D) spectroscopy and ESIMS. The following oligosaccharides were obtained: agarobiose, agarotetraose, kappa-carrabiose and kappa-carratetraose. Agarobiose and agarotetraose were used as standards to develop a high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) method which was utilized to study the hydrolysis rate of agarose and oligosaccharide production. Six hours of hydrolysis (0.1 M TFA, 65 ºC) produced mainly di- and tetrasaccharides. The methodology for oligosaccharide production and evaluation developed in the present work shows good potential for the production of bioactive oligosaccharides.
agaro-oligosaccharides; carra-oligosaccharides; partial acid hydrolysis; 3,6-anhydro-galactose; agarose; kappa-carrageenan
