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Physicochemical Characterization of Barley Carbohydrates Resistant to Digestion in a Human Ileostomate

Physicochemical techniques, monosaccharide, and linkage analysis, have been used to investigate the digestibility of different forms of cooked barley starch in an ileostomist model. An ileostomate volunteer consumed a flapjack-type biscuit containing either barley flake, flour, or starch. Both starch and mucin were identified in the effluent and were found to make a significant contribution to the potentially fermentable substrate available to the large intestine. Chemical analysis of the effluents showed that the content of resistant starch in the effluent varied with presence and form of nonstarch polysaccharide and after consumption of barley flake and flour was 10.1 and 5.9% of the starch ingested, respectively. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction showed the excreted starch to be A-type only, indicating that the starch consumed in all three flapjack types was ungelatinized. These data demonstrate the potential of physicochemical techniques in the analysis of physiological samples.