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Extraction of β-Glucan from Oat Bran in Laboratory Scale

¹Dept. Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition, Lund University, Sweden. ²Corresponding author. Phone: +46 46 222 47 68. Fax: + 46 46 222 45 32. E-mail: Tina.Immerstrand@appliednutrition.lth.se ³Guelph Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph, ON.

Effects of various enzymes and extraction conditions on yield and molecular weight of β-glucans extracted from two batches of commercial oat bran produced in Sweden are reported. Hot-water extraction with a thermostable α-amylase resulted in an extraction yield of ≈76% of the β-glucans, while the high peak molecular weight was maintained (1.6 × 10⁶). A subsequent protein hydrolysis significantly reduced the peak molecular weight of β-glucans (by pancreatin to 908 × 10³ and by papain to 56 × 10³). These results suggest that the protein hydrolyzing enzymes may not be pure enough for purifying β-glucans. The isolation scheme consisted of removal of lipids with ethanol extraction, enzymatic digestion of starch with α-amylase, enzymatic digestion of protein using protease, centrifugation to remove insoluble material, removal of low molecular weight components using dialysis, precipitation of β-glucans with ethanol, and air-drying.