The emission of corrosive vapours by wood. Sweet-chestnut (Castanea stiva) and wych-elm (Ulmusglabrau) O-acetyl-4-O-methylglucuronoxylans extracted with dimethyl sulphoxide

Abstract

1. O-Acetylated 4-O-methylglucuronoxylans were isolated from sweet chestnut and wych elm, either green or incubated at 48 degrees and 100% relative humidity for 36 weeks. 2. The chlorine-ethanolamine method of delignification resulted in a 50% loss of O-acetyl groups from green wych elm compared with an 18% loss from green sweet chestnut. 3. The acid-chlorite method gave an acceptable loss of O-acetyl groups in three cases, but incubated sweet chestnut showed a 44.6% loss. However, it is believed that this is due to the loss of simple O-acetylated xylose sugars resulting from glycosidic hydrolysis, rather than removal of O-acetyl groups by direct hydrolysis. Assuming that this occurs in a random manner, it is unlikely to have much structural significance. 4. Dimethyl sulphoxide extraction of chestnut holocellulose and elm holocellulose, green and incubated, yielded O-acetyl glucuronoxylans containing 10.2, 3.8, 13.1 and 7.7% O-acetyl groups respectively. 5. The location of these O-acetyl groups was determined by Bouveng's method in which phenyl isocyanate is used as a blocking group.