Extraction of arabinoxylans from wheat bran using hydrothermal processes assisted by heterogeneous catalysts

The extraction/hydrolysis process of arabinoxylans from destarched wheat bran was studied in this work using different mesoporous silica supports and the corresponding RuCl₃-based catalysts. The effects of temperature, time, catalyst supports and ruthenium catalysts were investigated and discussed in terms of the arabinoxylans extraction yield and their polymerization degree. Relatively high temperatures (180°C), short extraction times (10min) and RuCl₃ supported on Al-MCM-48 led to a high amount of extracted arabinoxylans (78%) with a low molecular weight (9kDa). Finally, a relation between the operating conditions, the arabinoxylans extraction yield and the molecular weight was stablished based on the obtained results.