(C6H10O5)n; mol wt from about 2.7 × 105 to 3.5 × 106. Reserve carbohydrate of the animal organism. High molecular wt polymer having branched-chain structure composed of d-glucopyranose residues. Distributed through the cell protoplasm. Found esp in the liver and in rested muscle. Occurs also in insects and lower plants including fungi and yeasts. Isoln by alkaline destruction of the other cell constituents: Claude Bernard, Lecons sur le diabete (Paris, 1877) p 553; by destruction with trichloroacetic acid: Bell, Young, Biochem. J. 28, 882 (1934); by centrifugation: Meyer, Jeanloz, Adv. Enzymol. 3, 112 (1943); by hydraulic pressure: Stockhausen, Silbereisen, Biochem. Z. 287, 276 (1936). For biological synthesis and lysis from the Cori ester (glucose-1-phosphate) see the review and bibliography by Meyer, Adv. Enzymol. 3, 109 (1943); see also Nord, Chem. Rev. 26, 423 (1940); Kalckar, ibid. 28, 71 (1941). Isoln from the causal agent of cotton root rot, Phymatotrichum omnivorum (Shear) Duggar: Ergle, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 69, 2061 (1947). Studies on linkages: Bahl, Smith, J. Org. Chem. 31, 2915 (1966).