Effects of Growth Conditions and Cultivar on the Content and Physiochemical Properties of Arabinoxylan in Barley

• Published in: Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 2020-01, Vol.68 (4), p.1064-1070
• Main Authors: Marconi, Ombretta, Tomasi, Ivan, Sileoni, Valeria, Bonciarelli, Umberto, Guiducci, Marcello, Maranghi, Stefano, Perretti, Giuseppe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chromatography, Gel; Hordeum - chemistry; Hordeum - classification; Hordeum - growth & development; Molecular Weight; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Seeds - chemistry; Seeds - classification; Seeds - growth & development; Xylans - chemistry
• ISSN: 0021-8561; 1520-5118
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.9b05488

The present study aims to evaluate the effect of the growth conditions and the cultivar on the total and water-extractable (W-E) arabinoxylan (AX) in barley. For this purpose, nine barley varieties from two different years were analyzed. The total AX content ranged from 5.97 to 8.98 wt % d.m., while the W-E AX ranged from 0.06 to 0.35 wt % d.m. The W-E AX molecular properties were characterized by high-pressure size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC)-triple detector array (TDA). The molecular weight was between 2.3 × 105 and 12.6 × 105 Da, the polydispersity was between moderate and broad (1.1 < M w/M n < 4.3), and the conformation was a stiff semiflexible coil (0.5 < α < 1.3). The results indicate that the year influences the content of total AX and W-E AX and some molecular characteristics of W-E AX, such as its polydispersity and its conformation. Finally, the results demonstrated that the W-E AX can be used as an index of the malting attitude of barley because it positively correlates with germinative energy and kernel dimension.