Cereal Chem 54:524 - 533.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Determination of Beta-Glucan in Oats and Barley.

P. J Wood, D. Paton, and I. R. Siddiqui. Copyright 1977 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

A specific colorimetric procedure was developed for the determination of glucose in gum from oats (Avena sativa L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). The difference between this and the starch content, as measured enzymatically, gave the beta-glucan content of the gum. Extraction of the flour with alkali obviated the necessity for any pretreatment to inactivate beta-blucanases. Results for a number of oat cultivars are reported. A considerably shortened, though somewhat less rigorous, version of the assay is also described.