Polysaccharides of sphagnum mosses and sphagnum peat with a low degree of decomposition

Sphagnum mosses and little-decomposed sphagnum peat are labile carbohydrate-containing raw materials, most of the organic matter of which is represented by the polysaccharides of various structures. Many polysaccharides of plant origin have biological activity and can be considered to be potential raw material for the obtaining preparations for various purposes for medicine, veterinary medicine and plant growing.

 Sphagnum magellanicum, Sphagnum fuscum and sphagnum magellanicum and fuscum peat of low degree of  decomposition (10 %) sphagnum mosses were objects of research. Polysaccharides are isolated from these raw materials after delignification. The yield of polysaccharides from the holocellulose of fuscum moss was 5.3 %, for magellanicum moss – 4.9, for fuscum peat – 20.6, for magellanicum peat 18.6 % of the organic mass. Polysaccharides were also isolated from the original moss and peat samples by Kochetkov method – by extraction with the mixture of oxalic acid and ammonium oxalate after water-soluble compounds removal. The yield of polysaccharides by this method is much lower and was 1.2 % for fuscum moss; 1.4 % for magellanicum moss, 4.2 % for fuscum peat, and 4.6 % for magellanicum peat per organic mass. All polysaccharides had the same monosaccharide composition regardless of the initial raw material and isolation method. The mass fraction of uronic acids in the polysaccharide samples isolated from moss and peat holocellulose was 17.3–20.1 %. The content of uronic acids was somewhat lower and was in the range of 16.8–18.4 % For pectins isolated by Kochetkov method.

High content of uronic acids and the relatively low level of monosaccharides in the acidic hydrolysates of the isolated polysaccharides suggest these compounds belong to the acidic polysaccharides of pectin class in which neutral  monosac charides associated with uronic acids are hardly hydrolyzed with the formation of aldobi- and triuronic acids, due to the free monosaccharide content in hydrolysates is not high

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