Cereal Chem 67:226-229   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Enzymic Determination of Beta-Glucan in Cereal-Based Food Products.

J. M. Carr, S. Glatter, J. L. Jeraci, and B. A. Lewis. Copyright 1990 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

An improved method was developed for the determination of (1-3), (1-4)-beta-D-glucans in cereal-based food products and cereal grains. The method uses refluxing 80% (v/v) ethanol to remove sugars and inactivate enzymes prior to 1-hr extraction with water at 100 C for soluble beta-glucan determination or 16- hr extraction with 1.0N NaOH for total beta-glucan determination. An enzyme preparation from Penicillium funiculosum is used to selectively and quantitatively liberate glucose from beta-glucan in the extracts. For several different food products, soluble glucan content ranged from 0.49 to 3.90%, whereas total beta- glucan content ranged from 0.58 to 8.86% (dry weight basis). The dietary fiber ranged from 4.8 to 22.0% for the products. Total beta-glucan content is also reported for six different cereal grains. The preextraction with refluxing 80% ethanol is not required for the unprocessed cereal grains.