Gelation of cereal β-glucan at physiological conditions

Cereal β-glucan, or (1→3)(1→4)-β-D-glucan, has unique viscous and gelling properties, which are related to its physiological effects. The increased viscosity in human gastrointestinal tract by β-glucan is considered a key factor for its health benefits. However, the possible gelling ability of β-glucan in human intestine and its relation to the physiological functionality have not been investigated. The aims of this study were to investigate the possible structure formation of β-glucan at physiological conditions and to understand gelation difference between oat and barley β-glucan (OBG and BBG, respectively). Additionally, the effects of phytate and molecular weight (MW) on structure formation of β-glucan were studied. Oat (ROBG14, ROBG22) and barley bran concentrates (RBBG18) were used for in vitro studies in upper gut model. OBG14 was extracted from oat concentrates and used for further producing phytate-removed OBG (PR-OBG) or enzymatically degraded OBG (ENZ-OBG). The effect of phytate or molecular weight on gelation of beta-glucan was studied by comparing the gelation of PR-OBG or ENZ-OBG to OBG14 after 2 h and 1 d. The effect of β-glucan source was studied with medium viscosity oat (MOBG) and barley (MBBG) β-glucan with same molecular weight and concentration on day 1 and day 4. The extracted samples were first dissolved at physiological T 37°C for 2 h and the gel properties of the samples were measured with oscillatory measurements. OBG showed more structure formation than BBG at low concentrations in both studies with in vitro digestion model and extracted β-glucan samples at physiological temperature. In vitro RBBG18 (β-glucan content of the in vitro extract 0.6%) showed liquid-like behavior and no hysteresis obtained, indicating no structure formation. ROBG14 (β-glucan content 0.5%) and ROBG22 (β-glucan content 0.6%) showed entangled network, with similar crossover frequencies, 0.07 and 0.1 Hz, respectively. 1.5% MOBG showed liquid-like behavior on day 1, but storage modulus (G’) increased during storage. The undissolved particles in watery medium of MBBG indicated 37°C was not enough for partial dissolution which could lead to gel. At the same concentration (1%), both PR-OBG and OBG14 showed weak gel structure, with slightly higher G’ in PR-OBG. This indicated that phytate is not the reason for better gelation of OBG than BBG, which was hypothesized due to higher residual phytate in OBG than BBG. ENZ-OBG (0.7%) had lower G’ than OBG14 (0.7%), which indicated more structure formed in higher MW OBG at 2 h. To conclude, OBG is more prone to structure formation than BBG at physiological conditions. Phytate was not the reason for better gelation of OBG than BBG.