XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES

Anticancer Research

Xylooligosaccharides (XOS), which are sugar oligomers that consist of 2–10 xyloseunits, are considered as non-digestible food ingredients. XOS are naturally availablein various fruits, bamboos, green vegetables, honey, and milk. They are produced onan industrial scale from xylan-rich materials (Ebringerova and Hromadkova 1999).
Xylooligosaccharides have attracted the attention of scientists because of theirimportant actions in maintaining health, such as their prebiotic activity, anticanceractivity, and antioxidant activity (Stone et al. 1998; Gibson et al. 2004;Chandrasekhariah et al. 2007).
of XOS vary in their degree of polymerization (DP), monomeric units, and types oflinkages. Generally, XOS are mixtures of oligosaccharides formed by xylose residueslinked through β-(1 → 4)-linkages. The number of xylose residues involved intheir formation can vary from 2 to 10, and XOS are thus known as xylobiose, xylotriose,etc. For food applications, xylobiose (DP = 2) is considered to be an XOS. Inaddition to being found in combination with xylose residues, xylan is usually foundin combination with other side groups, such as α-D-glucopyranosyluronicacid or its4-O-methyl derivative, acetyl groups, or arabinofuranosyl residues. The presence of these side groups results in branched XOS with diversechemical properties.