Scleroglucan
Molecular structure
Scleroglucan is a polysaccharide yielding only glucose on complete hydrolisis. Although it produces aqueous solutions with a very high viscosity, its molecular weight is not very high: Mw = 540,000.
The chemical structure consists of beta-1,3-D-glucose residues with one beta-1,6-D-glucose side chain every three main residues.
CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF SCLEROGLUCAN
Dissolved Scleroglucan chains also assume a rod-like triple helical structure, in which the glucose residues are on the outside, thus preventing the helices from coming close to each other and aggregating. In addition, Scleroglucan molecules are in a single chain random coil state when they are dissolved in DMSO or when the pH is greater than 12.5.