
What is raffinose used for?
Raffinose is also used in: 1 skin moisturizers and smoothers 2 prebiotics (it allegedly promotes growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria) 3 food or drinks additive
What is the structure of raffinose?
Raffinose is a trisaccharide composed of galactose, glucose, and fructose. Raffinose can be hydrolyzed to D-galactose and sucrose by the enzyme α-galactosidase (α-GAL), an enzyme not found in the human digestive tract. α-GAL also hydrolyzes other α-galactosides such as stachyose, verbascose, and galactinol, if present.
How is raffinose digested in the body?
Raffinose passes through the small intestines into the large intestines where bacteria break it down, producing hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane gas, which exits through the rectum. What foods contain raffinose? Raffinose — Beans contain large amounts of this complex sugar.
What is the taste of raffinose?
Raffinose may have a form of a white crystalline powder. It is odorless and has a sweet taste approximately 10% that of sucrose. It is non-digestible in humans and other monogastric animals ( pigs and poultry) who do not possess the α-GAL enzyme to break down RFOs.

What is raffinose in food?
General Information: Raffinose is a trisaccharide composed of galactose, fructose, and glucose. It can be found in beans, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, and other plants. In plants, raffinose is generated via binding of galactinol (a sugar alcohol) to sucrose.
Where is raffinose found in the body?
It can be found in beans, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, other vegetables, and whole grains. Raffinose can be hydrolyzed to D-galactose and sucrose by the enzyme α-galactosidase (α-GAL), an enzyme not found in the human digestive tract....Raffinose.NamesCompTox Dashboard ( EPA )DTXSID804111121 more rows
Is raffinose a reducing sugar?
As is evident from its structure (its anomeric carbon atoms are involved in glycosidic bonds), it is a non-reducing sugar.
What is raffinose an example of?
An example of an oligosaccharide is raffinose. Raffinose is a trisaccharide, meaning it is made up of three monomers of monosaccharides, namely galactose, glucose, and fructose.
Why does raffinose cause gas?
Beans contain a lot of raffinose, which is a complex sugar that the body has trouble digesting. Raffinose passes through the small intestines into the large intestines where bacteria break it down, producing hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane gas, which exits through the rectum.
What bacteria digests raffinose?
Abstract. Raffinose has become a major focus of research interest and recent studies have shown that besides beneficial bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecium and Streptococcus pneumoniae can also utilize raffinose and raffinose might lead to flatulence in some hosts.
What is raffinose made of?
Raffinose is a trisaccharide composed of galactose, glucose, and fructose. It can be found in beans, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, other vegetables, and whole grains.
Is raffinose a carbohydrate?
In Lamiaceae, Cucurbitaceae and Oleaceae, raffinose is the predominant carbohydrate translocated in the phloem. Raffinose oligosaccharides have generally been considered to have low nutritional value, due to their indigestibility and promotion of flatulence in humans and animals.
How does yeast break down raffinose?
Yeast strains, which depolymerized fructans to a large extent, consumed raffinose and sucrose as well, and invertase and inulinase are responsible for releasing the fructose moiety of these carbohydrates [37].
Can raffinose be digested by humans?
, raffinose and stachyose), which contains three to 10 saccharide units; these compounds, which are found in beans and other legumes and cannot be digested well by humans, account for the gas-producing effects of these foods.
What is the structure of raffinose?
C18H32O16Raffinose / Formula
Is raffinose a prebiotic?
Taking into account the results herein gathered, raffinose presents a high prebiotic potential, comparable to the well-accepted lactulose, specially to act on Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus reduced dysbiosis.
What are the roles of raffinose in plants?
Besides being a storage and transport form of carbohydrate, the raffinose members play a role in abiotic stress tolerance. The major raffinose compounds are raffinose (trisaccharide) and stachyose (tetrasaccharide), but higher oligomers can also be found in some plants.
Which trisaccharide is hydrolysed by invertase?
Raffinose (the trisaccharide of glucose, galactose and fructose) is hydrolysed by invertase to fructose and the disaccharide, melibiose. Melibiase hydrolyses melibiose to glucose and galactose. The optical rotation and the ability to reduce Fehling‘s solution changes during the hydrolysis:
Why is cryopreservation important?
Cryopreservation of epididymal sperm. Cryopreservation of sperm has become important for mutagenesis programmes as well as for storing genetically modified strains. The cryopreservation of spermatozoa is fast and cheap, not requiring expensive equipment.
What is raffinose used for?
Raffinose is also used in: 1 skin moisturizers and smoothers 2 prebiotics (it allegedly promotes growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria) 3 food or drinks additive
What enzyme hydrolyzes raffinose?
Raffinose can be hydrolyzed to D-galactose and sucrose by the enzyme α-galactosidase (α-GAL), an enzyme not found in the human digestive tract. α-GAL also hydrolyzes other α-galactosides such as stachyose, verbascose, and galactinol, if present. The enzyme does not cleave β-linked galactose, as in lactose .
What enzyme makes short chain fatty acids?
In the large intestine, they are fermented by bacteria that do possess the α-GAL enzyme and make short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) (acetic, propionic, butyric acids), as well as the flatulence commonly associated with eating beans and other vegetables.
Is Raffinose a soluble carbohydrate?
RFOs are almost ubiquitous in the plant kingdom, being found in a large variety of seeds from many different families, and they rank second only to sucrose in abundance as soluble carbohydrates . Raffinose may have a form of a white crystalline powder.

Overview
Uses
Procedures concerning cryopreservation have used raffinose to provide hypertonicity for cell desiccation prior to freezing. Either raffinose or sucrose is used as a base substance for sucralose.
Raffinose is also used in:
• skin moisturizers and smoothers
• prebiotics (it allegedly promotes growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria)
Chemical properties
The raffinose family of oligosaccharides (RFOs) are alpha-galactosyl derivatives of sucrose, and the most common are the trisaccharide raffinose, the tetrasaccharide stachyose, and the pentasaccharide verbascose. RFOs are almost ubiquitous in the plant kingdom, being found in a large variety of seeds from many different families, and they rank second only to sucrose in abundance as soluble carbohydrates.
Biochemical properties
It is non-digestible in humans and other monogastric animals (pigs and poultry) who do not possess the α-GAL enzyme to break down RFOs. These oligosaccharides pass undigested through the stomach and small intestine. In the large intestine, they are fermented by bacteria that do possess the α-GAL enzyme and make short-chain fatty acids (SCFA)(acetic, propionic, butyric acids), as well as the flatulence commonly associated with eating beans and other vegetables. T…
Disease relevance
Research has shown that the differential ability to utilize raffinose by strains of the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, impacts their ability to cause disease and the nature of the disease.
See also
• Raffinose—raffinose alpha-galactosyltransferase
• Raphanin
Further reading
• D(+)-Raffinose pentahydrate, Chemical Books