Periodate oxidation and degradation studies on the major water-soluble arabinoxylan in rye grain

Arabinoxylans as Functional Food Ingredients: A Review

The health benefits of fibre consumption are sound, but a more compressive understanding of the individual effects of different fibres is still needed. Arabinoxylan is a complex fibre that provides a wide range of health benefits strongly regulated by its chemical structure. Arabinoxylans can be found in various grains, such as wheat, barley, or corn. This review addresses the influence of the source of origin and extraction process on arabinoxylan structure. The health benefits related to short-chain fatty acid production, microbiota regulation, antioxidant capacity, and blood glucose response control are discussed and correlated to the arabinoxylan’s structure. However, most studies do not investigate the effect of AX as a pure ingredient on food systems, but as fibres containing AXs (such as bran). Therefore, AX’s benefit for human health deserves further investigation. The relationship between arabinoxylan structure and its physicochemical influence on cereal products (pasta, cookies, cakes, bread, and beer) is also discussed. A strong correlation between arabinoxylan’s structural properties (degree of branching, solubility, and molecular mass) and its functionalities in food systems can be observed. There is a need for further studies that address the health implications behind the consumption of arabinoxylan-rich products. Indeed, the food matrix may influence the effects of arabinoxylans in the gastrointestinal tract and determine which specific arabinoxylans can be included in cereal and non-cereal-based food products without being detrimental for product quality.

Separation and purification of soluble polymers and cell wall fractions from wheat, rye and hull less barley endosperm flours for structure-nutrition studies

The nutritional values associated with the cell walls of cereal endosperm flours are due to a combination of solubilized arabinoxylan and (1-3,1-4)-β-d-glucan as well as residual nonsolubilized cell wall material. In order to investigate structure-nutrition relationships, an appropriate method for the complete functional and structural characterization of cell wall polysaccharides in various cereal endosperm flours is described. This involves the separation of soluble polymers and the residual cell wall fraction without using organic solvents, and the fractionation of soluble polymers into arabinoxylan- and (1-3,1-4)-β-d-glucan-rich fractions for subsequent analysis. This methodology is applied to endosperm flours from wheat, hull-less barley and rye, and could be extended to include studies on the effects of food processing with respect to yield and characteristics of the three fractions in order to better understand the structural basis for nutritional functionality.

Natural Polymer Resources: Isolation, Separation and Characterization

This chapter describes various strategies and analytical techniques used for isolation, separation and characterization of natural polymers as the essential first step for their applications in food, feed and non-food products. It discusses different methods used for isolation and characterization of polysaccharides at the molecular and supramolecular levels. The discussion is exemplified by the detailed structural analysis of, among others, heteropolysaccharides like mucilage and fructans by permethylation, reductive cleavage and acetylation, followed by gas liquid chromatography. Data are also presented for supramolecular dimensions and molecular weights of poly-saccharides from various sources by different chromatographic methods combined with inline multiple detection systems (mass, light scattering, viscosity, fluorescence). The analysis and characterisation of plant and animal proteins are also briefly discussed.

Selective chemical oxidation and depolymerization of switchgrass [corrected] (Panicum virgatum L.) xylan with [corrected] oligosaccharide product analysis by mass spectrometry

Xylan is a barrier to enzymatic hydrolysis of plant cell walls. It is well accepted that the xylan layer needs to be removed to efficiently hydrolyze cellulose; consequently, pretreatment conditions are (in part) optimized for maximal xylan depolymerization or displacement. Xylan consists of a long chain of β-1,4-linked xylose units substituted with arabinose (typically α-1,3-linked in grasses) and glucuronic acid (α-1,2-linked). Xylan has been proposed to have a structural function in plants and therefore may play a role in determining biomass reactivity to pretreatment. It has been proposed that substitutions along xylan chains are not random and, based upon studies of pericarp xylan, are organized in domains that have specific structural functions. Analysis of intact xylan is problematic because of its chain length (> degree of polymerization (d.p.) 100) and heterogeneous side groups. Traditionally, enzymatic end-point products have been characterized due to the limited products generated. Analysis of resultant arabino-xylo-oligosaccharides by mass spectrometry is complicated by the isobaric pentose sugars that primarily compose xylan. In this report, the variation in pentose ring structures was exploited for selective oxidation of the arabinofuranose primary alcohols followed by acid depolymerization to provide oligosaccharides with modified arabinose branches intact. Switchgrass samples were analyzed by hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC)-liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (MSMS) and off-line nanospray MS to demonstrate the utility of this chemistry for determination of primary hydroxyl groups on oligosaccharide structures, with potential applications for determining the sequence of arabino-xylo-oligosaccharides present in plant cell wall material.

Association and structural diversity of hemicelluloses in the cell walls of rye outer layers: comparison between two ryes with opposite breadmaking quality

Looking for potential quality indicators, which could be used in early selection of breeding materials, the structural features of cell wall arabinoxylans (AX) from outer layers of the grain (pooled shorts and bran fractions) were studied in two ryes with diverse breadmaking quality. The successive alkaline extraction of water-unextractable material with saturated Ba(OH)2, followed by water and 1 and 4 M NaOH, resulted in four purified fractions, Ba, BaH, 1Na, and 4Na, respectively, that became water soluble after their isolation. The AX present in these fractions constituted approximately 43, 12, 14, and 4% of their total amount recovered. Moreover, two xylan-enriched fractions, 1Na.P and 4Na.P (arabinose-to-xylose ratios, Ara/Xyl, of 0.07 and 0.19, respectively), were self-precipitated from both NaOH-extractable fractions. Polysaccharides of these fractions, containing mainly xylose, represented approximately 16 and 1% of AX recovered. In the BaH and 1Na, AX coexisted with beta-glucans, which predominated in the former protein-free fraction. On the contrary, hemicelluloses in the 1Na fraction were associated with protein as well. Further fractionation of the water-soluble materials by ammonium sulfate revealed that the parent AX populations in the Ba, BaH, and 1Na were composed of 3-4 subfractions with different degrees of substitution (Ara/Xyl of approximately 0.4, 0.8, and 1.1), whereas 4Na was almost totally built of highly substituted AX (Ara/Xyl of 1.1). Despite a comparable proportion of un-, mono-, and disubstituted xylopyranosyl residues in the chain of Ba(OH)2-extractable AX isolated from both ryes, the 1H NMR and Fourier transform infrared demonstrated the marked differences in their spectral profiles, suggesting different substitution patterns of these dominating polysaccharides. The high molecular weight population present in the Ba fraction also differentiated well two ryes with opposite breadmaking quality.

Evidence of the presence of 2-O-beta-D-xylopyranosyl-alpha-l-arabinofuranose side chains in barley husk arabinoxylan

(Glucurono)arabinoxylans were extracted from barley husks and degraded with endo-beta-xylanase or subjected to periodate oxidation. The released oligosaccharide fragments were separated and isolated on Biogel-P2, and their structures were determined by NMR spectroscopy. The oligosaccharides identified consisted of beta-d-(1-->4)-linked xylopyranosyl residues, of which some were substituted at O-3 with alpha-l-arabinofuranosyl groups or at O-2 with 4-O-methylglucuronic acid. In addition to these substituents, a disaccharide side chain, 2-O-beta-d-xylopyranosyl-alpha-l-arabinofuranose, attached at position O-3 of the main chain, was proved to exist in arabinoxylan from barley husks. The compound was fully characterized with NMR, and all (1)H and (13)C NMR signals were assigned. The arabinose to xylose ratio was low (approximately 0.2) and no 2,3-disubstitution existed. No blocks of substituted xylose residues could be observed along the main chain.