Arabinoxylans: A review on protocols for their recovery, functionalities and roles in food formulations

Arabinoxylans (AXs) are compounds with high nutritional value and applicability, including prebiotics or supplementary ingredients, in food manufacturing industries. Unfortunately, the recovery of AXs may require advanced separation and integrated strategies. Here, an analysis of the emerging techniques to extract AXs from cereals and their by-products is discussed. This review covers distinct methods implemented over the last 2-3 years, identifying that the type of method, extraction source, AX physicochemical properties and pre-treatment conditions are the main factors influencing the recovery yield. Alkaline extraction is among the most used methods nowadays, mostly due to its simplicity and high recovery yield. Concurrently, recovered AXs applied in food applications is timely reviewed, such as potential bread ingredient, prebiotic and as a wall material for probiotic encapsulation, in beer and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing, complementary ingredient in bakery products and cookies, improvers in Chinese noodles, 3D food printing and designing of nanostructures for delivery platforms.

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.

Relationships between grain, flour, and dough quality characteristics and solvent retention capacity tests of twelve triticale cultivars and parental species

Relationships amongst solvent retention capacity (SRC) profiles and quality characteristics of triticale cultivars were investigated. Superior triticale grains resulted into flours with preferable quality attributes for baking bread. Standard and supplementary SRC-values exhibited significant correlation with grain, flour, and dough quality. Positive correlations among sucrose-SRC with ash, pentosan, and ferulic acid (FA) contents were significant. The standard SRC-profiles along with metabisulfite-SRC (MBS-SRC) and ethanol-SRC exhibited significant correlation with damaged starch (DS) content. The ethanol-SRC demonstrated strong correlations with water absorption capacity, FA, and Dmax-value alveolab parameter. Triticale flours containing a higher amount of anti-parallel β-sheets and tyrosine exhibited higher lactic acid-SRC (LA-SRC) and gluten-performance-index (GPI). Positive correlations between sodium dodecylsulphate-SRC (SDS-SRC) and anti-parallel β-sheets percentages were noticed. The LA-SRC, GPI, MBS-SRC, SDS-SRC, and SDS+MBS-SRC were positively correlated with SDS-sedimentation, gluten index and negatively to sulfhydryl-groups content. Triticales having higher LA-SRC and MBS-SRC resulted in dough with higher strength and tenacity.

Comparative Quality Evaluation of Physicochemical, Technological, and Protein Profiling of Wheat, Rye, and Barley Cereals

Agronomically important cereal crops wheat, barley, and rye of the Triticeace tribe under the genus Triticum were studied with special focus on their physical, proximal, and technological characteristics which are linked to their end product utilization. The physiochemical parameters showed variability among the three cereal grains. Lactic acid-solvent retention capacity (SRC) was found to be higher in wheat (95.86–111.92%) as compared to rye (53.78–67.97%) and barley (50.24–67.12%) cultivars, indicating higher gluten strength. Sucrose-SRC and sodium carbonate-SRC were higher in rye as compared to wheat and barley flours. The essential amino acid proportion in barley and rye cultivars was higher as compared to wheat cultivars. Barley and rye flours exhibited higher biological value (BV) owing to their higher lysine content. SDS-PAGE of wheat cultivars showed a high degree of polymorphism in the low molecular range of 27.03–45.24 kDa as compared to barley and rye cultivars. High molecular weight (HMW) proteins varied from 68.38 to 119.66 kDa (4–5 subunits) in wheat, 82.33 to 117.78 kDa (4 subunits) in rye, and 73.08 to 108.57 kDa (2–4 subunits) in barley. The comparative evaluation of barley and rye with wheat cultivars would help in the development of healthy food products.

Characteristics of modern triticale quality: glutenin and secalin subunit composition and mixograph properties

Triticale is a hardy, high yielding cereal crop with a reputation for poor gluten strength. The secalogluten formation capacity was investigated in 17 modern triticale cultivars by defining their HMW glutenin and 75K γ-secalin alleles and then assessing SDS-sedimentation height and mixograph parameters in a subset of cultivars. The allelic diversity was poor with only 13 alleles identified at four loci; nevertheless, sufficient variability existed to allow secalogluten improvement through crossbreeding and selection. SDS-sedimentation height of triticale (35.5 mm) and mixing time (2.7 min) was equivalent to soft wheat but significantly less than hard wheat. However, flour protein content was 16% less in triticale compared to wheat, despite similar grain protein contents, suggesting triticale stores a lower proportion of grain protein in the endosperm. The confounding factor of protein content must be considered as part of an equitable analysis of gluten quality in cultivar breeding, in the interpretation of previous triticale research, and when comparing triticale to wheat. Improved glutenin properties will expand the utility of triticale in human food products and, thus, increase potential profitability.

Evaluation of Model Wheat/Hemp Composites

Model cereal blends were prepared from commercial wheat fine flour and 5 samples of hemp flour (HF), including fine (2 of conventional form, 1 of organic form) and wholemeal type (2 of conventional form). Wheat flour was substituted in 4 levels (5, 10, 15, 20%). HF addition has increased protein content independently on tested hemp flour form or type. Partial model cereal blends could be distinguished according to protein quality (Zeleny test values), especially between fine and wholemeal HF type. Both flour types affected also amylolytic activity, for which a relationship between hemp addition and determined level of Falling Number was confirmed for all five model cereal blends. Solvent retention capacity profiles (SRC) of partial models were influenced by both HF form and type, as well as by its addition level. Between both mentioned groups of quality features, significant correlation were proved - relationships among protein content/quality and lactic acid SRC were verifiable on p <0.01 (-0.58, 0.91, respectively). By performed ANOVA, a possibility to distinguish the HF form used in model cereal blend according to the lactic acid SRC and the water SRC was demonstrated. Comparing partial cereal models containing fine and wholemeal hemp type, HF addition level demonstrated its impact on the sodium carbonate SRC and the water acid SRC.