Physicochemical functionality of chimeric isomaltomegalosaccharides with α-(1 → 4)-glucosidic segments of various lengths.

Isomaltomegalosaccharide (IMS) is a long chimeric glucosaccharide composed of α-(1 → 6)- and α-(1 → 4)-linked segments at nonreducing and reducing ends, respectively; the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of these segments are expected to lead to bifunctionality. We enzymatically synthesized IMS with average degrees of polymerization (DPs) of 15.8, 19.