Pectins present in the primary cell walls and middle lamellae of plant cell walls are extracted by water, cheating agents, acid or alkali solutions. However, some neutral contaminating components are extracted in conjunction with pectins during the extraction process. Thus, the accurate characterization of physi-cochemical properties of pectins necessitates to get rid of the impurities. In this review, dialysis, alcohol precipitation, ion exchange chromatography and metal precipitation were compared as procedures to purify the pectin extracts. In addition, the chemical methods to analyze pectins are discussed in terms of three major chemical constituents, i.e., anhydrogalacturonic acid, methoxyl groups and neutral sugars.