**1.1 Pectin**

The cell wall surrounds the plant cell and protects the cell and its distinctive components that are essential for plant survival from different environmental pressure. The plants cell wall supports the plant to survive under various climate conditions and the polysaccharides in most abundant material composition of cell as compared to protein, aromatic and aliphatic compounds. Pectin polymer plays significant role in the composition of cells and acts as cementing agent to structural organization and functionality of cell. Pectin is mostly present in the cell walls of higher plants. It is one of the major components of plants and responsible for the

#### **Figure 1.** *Cell wall structure of higher plants [1].*

structure integrity and cohesion of plant tissues (**Figure 1**) [2, 3]. The term pectin was initially quoted in eighteenth century from tamarind fruit as a peculiar substance [4]. The basic characterization of pectin was done on nineteenth century and categorized it as active component of fruit and fruit-based products [5]. As an outcome, Nussinovitch suggested the word 'pectin' in Ref. to Greek work 'pektikos' which mean 'congeal, solidify or curdle' [6]. The actual chemistry of pectin began when Ehrlich [7] discovered that the D- galacturonic, an isomer of D-gluronic acid, is the central constituent of pectin, and the some of these D-galacturonic acid are partially esterified with methyl alcohol. Now, pectin is thought to be composed of at least seventeen kinds of different monosaccharides, in which D-galacturonic acid is usually the most abundant, followed by D-galactose or L-arbinose [8, 9].
