Characterisation of polysaccharides from gold kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. ‘Hort16A’)

The cell-wall polysaccharide components of gold kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis Planch. ‘Hort16A’, ZESPRI® GOLD) have been investigated for the first time. Alcohol-insoluble residues (AIRs) were prepared from whole, unpeeled gold and green (Actinidia deliciosa) kiwifruit and the constituent sugar and glycosyl linkage compositions determined. AIRs from both kiwifruit contained a high proportion of cellulose; the gold kiwifruit contained a higher proportion of hemicellulosic polysaccharides and lower proportion of pectic polysaccharides compared with the green. The gold kiwifruit AIR was partitioned by sequential extraction with water, aqueous CDTA (0.05 M), aqueous Na2CO3 (0.05 M) and aqueous KOH (1 M then 4 M). The glycosyl linkage compositions of each fraction were determined and the types of cell-wall polysaccharides from the gold fruit were found to be similar to those previously reported for the green fruit.