Fructan

Fructans also appear in grass, with dietary implications for horses and other grazing animals (Equidae).

Fructans are built up of fructose residues, normally with a sucrose unit (i.e. a glucose–fructose disaccharide) at what would otherwise be the reducing terminus.

[3] Two more types of fructans are more complex: they are formed on a 6G-kestotriose backbone where elongations occur on both sides of the molecule.

Again two types are discerned: Fructans are important storage polysaccharides in the stems of many species of grasses and confer a degree of freezing tolerance.

Use in the food industry is based on the nutritional and technological properties of fructans as a prebiotic dietary fiber.