Question

Could the purity of cellulose be estimated using the same method, acid hydrolysis, as used to estimate the purity of glycogen?

Answer 1

Yes, acid hydrolysis could be used to estimate the purity of cellulose.

Cellulose is an unbranched or linear polysaccharide consists of beta linked D-glucose whereas glycogen is a linear chain branched polysaccharide consist of glucose residues.

Although glycogen is not a reducing sugar, strong acids like HCl or sulphuric acid hydrolyzes the glycogen into glucose (monomer unit of glucose). And after hydrolysis, purity of it could be determined. Similarly, the hydrolysis of cellulose in the presence of strong acid could be done and the product obtained was also glucose by breakage of the β-1,4-glycosidic bonds (D-glucose is the monomer of cellulose) and thus purity of cellulose could be estimated by evaluating the hydrolyzed product that is glucose.