Conformational characteristics of β-glucan in laminarin probed by terahertz spectroscopy

摘要

We measured the binding-state-dependent power absorptions, refractive indices, and dielectric constants of triple-stranded helices (TSHs) and single-stranded helices (SSHs) β-glucans in laminarin using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS). The SSH β-glucan was obtained from a TSH β-glucan laminarin by a chemical treatment with NaOH solution. The power absorption of TSH β-glucan increased more rapidly than that of the SSH β-glucan with the frequency increment. The refractive index and dielectric constants of TSH β-glucan were also larger than those of the SSH β-glucan. This result implies that terahertz-TDS is a very effective method in classifying the conformational state of β-glucans.