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INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PHARMACY
www.irjponline.com ISSN 2230 8407
Review Article

A REVIEW ON XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES
Gupta

Praveen Kumar*, Agrawal Pushpa, Hegde Prabha
Department of Biotechnology, R.V College of Engineering Bangalore-560059 India

Article Received on: 18/05/12 Revised on: 29/06/12 Approved for publication: 17/07/12

*Email: praveenkgupta@rvce.edu.in

ABSTRACT:
Xylan is an important structural component of plant biomass left in agricultural wastes. It is the most abundant of all of the hemicellulosic materials in the
world. A number of economically valuable products such as xylose and xylitol can be made from Xylan, but one category of emerging importance is
Xylooligosaccharides (XOS). Xylans are present not only in wood but also in various other plants such as grasses, cereals, and herbs. They constitute 5-35% of
the dry tissues of lignocellulosic materials and occur up to 50% in some cereal grains. Non-digestible oligosaccharides are low molecular weight carbohydrates
of intermediate in nature between simple sugars and polysaccharides. They can be obtained by direct extraction from natural sources or produced by chemical
processes hydrolyzing polysaccharides or by enzymatic and chemical synthesis from disaccharides. XOS have great prebiotic potential and can be
incorporated into many food products. XOS seem to exert their nutritional benets in various animal species, which by definition have an intestinal tract
populated by a complex, bacterial intestinal ecosystem.
KEYWORDS: Lignocellulosic materials, xylan, xylooligosaccharides, prebiotic, bifidobacteria.

INTRODUCTION:
Diet is an important determinant of disease risk in all
population groups. There is emerging evidence that
functional food ingredients can have an impact on a number
of gut-related diseases and dysfunctions associated with
changing lifestyle and age. The words of Thomas Alva
Edison The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but
will have interest in the care of the human frame, in diet and
in the cause and prevention of disease are relevant in the
present scenario where each individual desires to live longer
in a healthy manner
1
. The importance of the colonic
microbiota in human health and well-being is a major
breakthrough in both medical and nutrition research. The
symbiosis between prokaryotes and the colon is increasingly
recognized as a major player in health and well-being and to
achieve this, the concept of prebiotics has been suggested.
2

Prebiotics are nutrients that have the potential to considerably
influence the physiology of whole body and, consequently,
health, and well-being.
3
However, because prebiotics
specically and selectively affect the gut microora, their
importance is likely to become greater and greater. As
biomedical research progresses, it is proposed to go further
and to classify a prebiotic as an essential, specic colonic
nutrient. Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) are relatively new type
of oligomers which have gained a lot of interest because of
many technological and health benefits and lot of research is
going on to explore their dietary and physiological roles.
2,3
OLIGOSACCHARIDES: Oligosaccharides are an
important group of polymeric carbohydrates that are found
either in free or combined forms in all living organisms.
According to the IUB-IUPAC nomenclature,
oligosaccharides may be defined as oligomers which are
composed of 210 monosaccharide residues structurally
linked by glycosidic bonds that are readily hydrolyzed to
their constituent monosaccharides either by acids or specific
enzymes.
4
They are found naturally in fruits, vegetables, milk
and honey. Most oligosaccharides have a mild sweet taste
and the mouth-feel they lend to food that has drawn the
interest of the food industry to use them as a partial substitute
for fats and sugars in foods. Moreover, oligosaccharides can
be used as functional food ingredients that have a great
potential to improve the quality of many foods. It has been
reported that these have various physiological functions.
1,4

Different types of oligosaccharides along with their sources
are given in Table.

Table: Dietary oligosaccharide with their natural sources and industrial
production processes (adapted from Murphy, 2001).
Types of
Oligosaccharides
Natural
Occurrence
Industrial Production
Process
Lactulose Cow milk Isomerization of
lactose
Lactosucrose,
glycosucrose
Beet Extraction and
transglycosylation of
sucrose
Xylooligosaccharide Soyabean Hydrolysis of
polyxylans
Stacchyose, raffinose Beet, soyabean Synthesis from starch
Fructooligosaccharide Fruits,
vegetables
Synthesis and
extraction from
saccharose
Galactooligosaccharide Human milk,
cow milk
Enzymatic synthesis
from lactose

Xylooligosaccharides are sugar oligomers made up of xylose
units. These are naturally present in fruits, vegetables,
bamboo, honey and milk and can be produced at industrial
scale from xylan-rich materials. Of particular interest are
those sources of residual origin, such as forestal, agricultural
or industrial wastes of lignocellulosic nature. Processing of
residual vegetable biomass as raw material offers economic
and ecological benefits, since it is a biorenewable, widely
distributed and abundant resource The growing commercial
importance of these non digestible oligosaccharides is based
on their beneficial health properties, particularly the prebiotic
activity.
6,7
PROPERTIES OF XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES:
8,9
Physico-chemical property: Sweetness, bitterness,
hygroscopically, reinforcement agent for drinks, stabilizing
agents of active substances etc. They are stable over a wide
range of pH and temperatures and have organoleptic
characteristics suitable for incorporation into foods.
Biological property: Digestibility, non-digestibility, non-
carcinogenicity, bacteriostatic action, selective proliferation
of bifidobacteria, improvement of serum lipids and blood,
glucose etc. Moreover it also shows activity as enzyme
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Praveen Kumar et al. IRJP 2012, 3 (8)
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inhibitors. XOS favor the selective growth of bifidobacterium
spp, which have important biological effects since they;
i) suppress the activity of entero putrefactive and pathogenic
intestinal bacteria due to the production of short chain
fatty acids.
ii) facilitate the absorption of nutrients.
Xylooligosaccharides are advantageous over other
nondigestible oligosaccharides in terms of both health and
technological related properties. However, the comparatively
high production costs require further development of
processing and purification technologies.
CHEMISTRY OF XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES:
Depending upon various xylan sources used for XOS
production, the structures of XOS vary in degree of
polymerization (DP), monomeric units and types of linkages.
Generally, XOS are mixtures of oligosaccharides formed by
xylose residues linked through -(14)-linkages. The
number of xylose residues involved in their formation can
vary from 2 to 10 and they are known as xylobiose,
xylotriose, and so on. For food applications, xylobiose (DP =
2) is considered to be a xylooligosaccharide. In addition to
xylose residues, xylan is usually found in combination with
other side groups such as -D-glucopyranosyluronic acid or
its 4-O-methyl derivative, acetyl groups, or arabinofuranosyl
residues. The presence of these side groups results in
branched XOS with diverse biological properties.
9,10,11
BASIC STRUCTURES OF
XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES:
12


PRODUCTION OF XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES:
LCM affluent in xylan, such as agriculture residues
(corncobs, bagasse, cornstalks, sunflower, rice hulls and
almond shells), hardwoods, and algae can effectively be used
to produce xylooligomers through fractionation processes.
13

There have been a number of approaches divulged for
fractionation of LCM mainly:
14,15

I. Isolation or solublization of xylan through chemical
fractionation and enzymatic hydrolysis

II. Direct enzymatic hydrolysis of xylan rich material



Figure 1:
15
Hydrolysis of xylan to xylooligosaccharides and xylose by
different enzymes

III. Autohydrolysis: Hydrolytic treatments based on
aqueous/steam processing and chemical and/or enzymatic
hydrolysis. The combined chemical and enzymatic
extraction of XOS is performed in two stages i.e. the xylan
extraction from LCM and enzymatic hydrolysis of that xylan
into xylooligomers. Isolation or solublization of xylan
through chemical fractionation and enzymatic hydrolysis.
The xylan fraction is usually treated with low concentrated
solutions and mild conditions. This can be obtained by
treatment of the LCM with dilute acids alkali (i.e. solutions
of ammonia, Ca(OH)2, NaOH, KOH or mixture of any of
these), the stable pH of xylan supporting this treatment.
9,10,11
Feed stock material can be pretreated with oxidizing agents,
alcohols or salts to remove lignin/pectic substances
depending upon the nature of material. From the alkali
treated LCM, recovery of degraded hemicellulosic
byproducts can be made by precipitation with organic
compounds. Further degradation of isolated xylan can be
achieved by hydrolysis with xylanases, which can be added
directly to the reaction media, immobilized, or may be
produced in situ by microorganisms. The xylanases play a
key role in xylan hydrolysis to XOS.
16
Purification of Xylooligosaccharides:
17,18
APPLICATIONS: The growing demand of functional foods
and the potential for products development open promising
markets for xylooligosaccharides in many fields, including
food and feed, agricultural and pharmaceuticals applications.

Food Applications: Among the main use of
oligosaccharides, these are used in beverages including fruit
drinks, coffee, cocoa, tea, soda, health drinks and alcoholic
beverages and milk products e.g. instant powders, powdered
milk and ice cream, fermented milks. Further, existing uses in
the food industry take in desserts such as jellies, puddings
and sherbets; confectionary products such as candy, cookies,
biscuits, breakfast cereals; chocolate and sweets; breads and
pastries; table spreads such as jams and marmalades; and
meat products such as fish paste.
5,6,10

Agricultural and feed Applications: It is used as yield
enhancer, ripening agent, growth stimulator and accelerator
and Feed for pets and fishes. Xylooligosaccharides can be
used as ingredients of functional foods, cosmetics,
pharmaceuticals or agricultural products.
6,7
High selective proliferation of bifidobacterium : Its effect
is 20 times of other polymer sugars; it can hardly be digested
and absorbed, but directly enters large intestine and is
preferably utilized by bifidobacterium to proliferate
beneficial bacterium for human body and inhibit growth and
proliferation of other harmful bacterium.
19,20
Pharmaceutical Applications: Xylooligosaccharides have
been reported for having the immunomodulatory activity,
anti-cancerous activity, anti-microbial activity, growth
regulator activity and other biological activity like
antioxidant, ant-allergic, anti-inflammatory,
antihyperlipidaemic activity and cosmetics and variety of
other properties. It is also used in preparation of micro or
nanoparticles and hydrogels for drug delivery and treatment
and prevention of gastrointestinal disorders.
9,23
Other health benefits: these have non-carcinogenic
properties and save insulin secretion from the pancreas, thus
stimulating intestinal mineral absorption.
Xylooligosaccharides as these oligosaccharides are mildly
laxative by stimulation of bacterial growth and fermentation.
The xylooligosaccharide intake has been reported as highly
effective for reducing severe constipation in pregnant women
without any adverse effects. Nutritional formula for infants
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Praveen Kumar et al. IRJP 2012, 3 (8)
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comprising xylooligosaccharides has been claimed to
improve gut barrier maturation and provides synergistic
effects all along the intestinal tract.

Nutritional infant
formulae containing XOS have been claimed to have
synergistic effects all along the intestinal tract, improving gut
barrier maturation. XOS can be mixed with other prebiotics
to achieve synergistic effects or make part of synbiotic
preparations together with probiotic microorganisms. Recent
patents have been issued on this latter topic.
21,22,23


Figure 2: Steps involved in purification of xylooligosaccharides


Figure 3: A systematic diagram on different application of xylooligosaccharides

ECONOMIC AND MARKET CONSIDERATIONS:
XOS offer an array of other dietary benefits to consumers
including fiber-like properties, reducing cholesterol,
improving uptake of calcium, and acting as antioxidants.
With an estimated market price of $22/kg in 2004, there is
potential to create some economic value from agricultural
waste.
22,23

CONCLUSIONS:
Available experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that
XOS and other prebiotics can offer an opportunity to prevent
or mitigate gastrointestinal disorders. Even though
encouraging results have been obtained for other prebiotics in
preliminary clinical trials, the data on XOS are limited.
19,20

More investigations are required to further elucidate the
mechanisms involved in the reduction of cancer risk and in
the cancer chemo- and/or radiotherapy-potentiating effects of
XOS.
21,22,23
However, these effects need to be conrmed in
other experimental models as well as in clinical trials before
XOS can be recommended as nontoxic and easily applicable
adjuvants for cancer therapy without any additional risk for
the patients. The properties of XOS offer a new dimension
for the development of functional foods.
6,10
One approach
that may be encouraged for future research is the combination
of prebiotics and probiotics (as synbiotics). Opportunities
exist in exploring the improved knowledge of the synbiotic
relationships between colonic microbiota, XOS, and whole
body physiopathology.
XOS have great potential as agents to maintain and improve a
balanced intestinal microora for enhanced health and well-
being. XOS can be incorporated into many food products.
5,6

There are however, several questions that still need to be
answered. The observations made in this review and
published information on nutritional, physiological, and
microbial benets of XOS give a distinct direction to future
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Praveen Kumar et al. IRJP 2012, 3 (8)
Page 74
research. Furthermore, the challenge of the future
exploitation of these benets into authentic health issues
remains a challenge
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
The authors wish to express their appreciation to Dr B.S.
Satyanarayana, Principal RVCE and Dr S Mahesh Head
Department of Biotechnology RVCE Bangalore for granting
permission for this research.
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