Production of arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides from flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum)

Flaxseed mucilage from Linum usitatissimum L. species was constituted by arabinoxylan (about 75%) and pectin (about 25%). A new procedure was developed to obtain only arabinoxylans which implicated treatment of the pectin fraction by enzymatic hydrolysis with pectinase. Then three processes of depolymerization were evaluated on arabinoxylans. First, a thermic hydrolysis in mild acid conditions was performed and an ultrafiltration process was used as purification method. Second, the potential of xylanases from different glycoside hydrolase families for arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS) production was tested, and finally a radical depolymerization was conducted. Average molecular weights were determined by high pressure size exclusion chromatography coupled with multiple angle laser light scattering (MALLS), and carbohydrate compositions were determined by high pH anion exchange chromatography pulse amperometric detector (HPAEC-PAD). Both chemical and enzymatic treatments were inefficient to convert arabinoxylans from flaxseed mucilage into AXOS. Only radical depolymerization process was allowed to obtain arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides presenting different molecular weights (11.9 x 10(3) to 1.9 x 10(3) g mol(-1)) with satisfactory yields (75% to 35%).