The structures of two hydrogels formed by purified brush-like polysaccharides from Plantago ovata seed mucilage have been characterised from the nanometre to micrometre scale by using a combination of SANS and USANS techniques. These two hydrogels have distinctly different melting and rheological properties, but the structure of their gel networks bears striking similarity as revealed by USANS/SANS experiments. Surprisingly, we find that the dramatic changes in the rheological properties induced by temperature or change in the solvent quality are accompanied by a small alteration of the network structure as inferred from scattering curves recorded above melting or in a chaotropic solvent (0.7 M KOD). These results suggest that, in contrast to most gel-forming polysaccharides for which gelation depends on a structural transition, the rheological properties of Plantago ovata mucilage gels are dependent on variations in intermolecular hydrogen bonding. By enzymatically cleaving off terminal arabinose residues from the side chains, we have demonstrated that composition of side-chains has a strong effect on intermolecular interactions, which, in turn, has a profound effect on rheological and structural properties of these unique polysaccharides.

车前子的纯化刷状多糖形成的两种水凝胶的结构通过结合使用SANS和USANS技术，可以将种子黏液的特性从纳米级扩展到微米级。这两种水凝胶具有明显不同的熔融和流变特性，但其凝胶网络的结构具有惊人的相似性，如USANS / SANS实验所揭示。出乎意料的是，我们发现，由温度或溶剂质量的变化引起的流变性质的急剧变化伴随着网络结构的小变化，这是根据熔融上方或离液溶剂（0.7 M KOD）中记录的散射曲线推断出的。这些结果表明，与大多数凝胶化依赖于结构转变的凝胶形成多糖相反，车前子的流变特性粘液凝胶取决于分子间氢键的变化。通过酶切从侧链上切除末端的阿拉伯糖残基，我们证明了侧链的组成对分子间的相互作用有很强的影响，而分子间的相互作用又对这些独特的多糖的流变和结构特性产生了深远的影响。