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A number of biologically active natural products are glycosides. Often, the glycosidic residue is crucial for their activity. In other cases, glycosylation only improves their pharmacokinetic parameters. Enzymatic modification of these glycosides - both extension of the glycoside moiety and its selective trimming - is advantageous due to their selectivity and mildness of the reaction conditions in the presence of reactive and sensitive complex aglycones. Enzymatic reactions enable the resulting products to be used as "natural products", e.g., in nutraceuticals. This chapter concentrates on naturally occurring glycosides used in medicine but also in the food and flavor industry (e.g., sweeteners). Both "classical" and modern methods will be discussed.

About 60 fungal strains were tested for production of extracellular beta-N-acetylhexosaminidases. A unique beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase with the beta-GalNAc-ase/beta-GlcNAc-ase ratio of 2.3-2.8 was found in the culture filtrates of some strains of Penicillium oxalicum. Addition of 20% (w/v) MgSO(4) increased the beta-GalNAc-ase/beta-GlcNAc-ase ratio to the value of 3.35. Cultivation conditions influence this ratio as well. beta-N-Acetylhexosaminidases from P. oxalicum CCF 2430 and Aspergillus oryzae CCF 1066 considerably differing in the GalNAc-ase activity were used for the synthesis of the following structures beta-D-GalpNAc-(1-->4)-D-GlcpNAc, beta-D-GalpNAc-(1-->6)-D-GlcpNAc, beta-D-GalpNAc-(1-->6)-D-GalpNAc, beta-D-GalpNAc-(1-->4)-alpha-D-GlcpNAcOAll and beta-D-GalpNAc-(1-->6)-beta-D-Galp-(1-->4)-alpha-D-GlcpNAcOAll to demonstrate the application of these new enzymes.