The Mw, polydispersity (Mw/Mn) and the root mean square (RMS) radius of vacuum-dried purified pectin (dispersed in Milli-Q water) were determined by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to a multi-angle laser light scattering (MALLS) system (Mini Dawn, Wyatt Technology Corp., Santa Barbara, CA, USA) as described in previous work ( Yuliarti et al., 2011).