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  • Glossary item | Last updated: 04 Apr 2024

Hemicellulose

Bioeconomy

Any of a group of complex carbohydrates that, with other carbohydrates (e.g.,pectins), surround the cellulose fibres of plant cells. The most common hemicelluloses contain xylans (many molecules of the five-carbon sugar xylose linked together), a uronic acid (i.e.,sugar acid), and arabinose (another five-carbon sugar). Hemicelluloses have no chemical relationship to cellulose.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015, accessed 18 December 2023

Source category: Dictionaries