The Production of (12)-Terminated Glucooligosaccharides

Oligosaccharides are molecules of biological interest because of their specific role in recognition mechanisms (1 ), a property directly linked to the complexity of the structure of their carbohydrate units. These molecules are difficult to produce by chemical synthesis because this requires complex successive protection and deprotection steps (2 ). At present, three routes are commonly recognized for oligosaccharide production (3 –5 ):

1.	Extraction from plant source.
2.	Controlled enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides.
3.	Enzymatic synthesis.