New enzyme-based method for analysis of water-soluble wheat arabinoxylans

Arabinoxylans (AX) are the predominant cell-wall polysaccharides in wheat flour. Water-extractable AX are essential for dough and bread properties and performance. However, there is no specific and accurate way of determining the content and structure of AX. An enzyme-assisted method employing an efficient enzyme mixture for the total hydrolysis of AX was developed in the present work. Enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) is a gentle method during which no unwanted sugar destruction occurs. Following EH, liberated monosaccharides were analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography using HPAEC-PAD. The results were compared with acid methanolysis (AM) and acid hydrolysis (AH). EH performed better on commercially isolated AX samples than the reference method AM. Its action in the water extract from wheat flour was also more efficient than that of AM and comparable to the efficiency of AH. HPAEC-PAD revealed a significant amount of fructose in the water extract following EH, originating from fructans in wheat flour not detected in the GC analysis. The wheat flour examined contained 0.29% water-extractable AX. The arabinose/xylose ratio was 0.32. The enzyme-based method developed is applicable for comparison of different wheat flours and can be used in evaluating the effect of processing on the content and structure of water-extractable AX.