Comprehensive multidetector HPSEC study on solution properties of cereal arabinoxylans in aqueous and DMSO solutions

The water-soluble arabinoxylans from wheat flour (high, medium, and low viscosity samples) and rye flour (high viscosity sample) were characterized by (1)H NMR spectroscopy and HPSEC with refractive index, light scattering, and viscometric detectors. These cereal arabinoxylans have recently been used as model arabinoxylans in various studies, but their solution properties have not been previously investigated. In this study, two HPSEC eluent systems were used: the water-based system and DMSO-based system. DMSO seemed to be a better solvent than water, especially for arabinoxylans containing a low amount of arabinose substituents. (1)H NMR spectroscopy indicated the structural differences between the analyzed arabinoxylan samples that also affected the hydrodynamic parameters obtained with HPSEC. Influence of arabinose side groups on the solution conformation of arabinoxylans could not be excluded based on our data, despite the role of arabinose substituents being questioned in previous investigations concerning arabinoxylan conformation in solution.