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Review
. 2024 Feb 4;13(3):500.
doi: 10.3390/foods13030500.

Cereal β-d-Glucans in Food Processing Applications and Nanotechnology Research

Lucie Jurkaninová  1 , Václav Dvořáček  2 , Veronika Gregusová  3 , Michaela Havrlentová  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Cereal β-d-Glucans in Food Processing Applications and Nanotechnology Research

Lucie Jurkaninová et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Cereal (1,3)(1,4)-β-d-glucans, known as β-d-glucans, are cell wall polysaccharides observed in selected plants of grasses, and oats and barley are their good natural sources. Thanks to their physicochemical properties β-d-glucans have therapeutic and nutritional potential and a specific place for their functional characteristics in diverse food formulations. They can function as thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and textural and gelation agents in beverages, bakery, meat, and extruded products. The objective of this review is to describe the primary procedures for the production of β-d-glucans from cereal grains, to define the processing factors influencing their properties, and to summarize their current use in the production of novel cereal-based foods. Additionally, the study delves into the utilization of β-d-glucans in the rapidly evolving field of nanotechnology, exploring potential applications within this technological realm.

Keywords: cereals; extraction; food application; nanotechnology; processing; β-d-glucans.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structure of cereal β-d-glucans with β-(1-3)- and β-(1-4)- linkages and the “staircase”-like structure, adapted from Henrion et al. [6].
Figure 2
Figure 2
The basic steps in the production of β-d-glucans from cereals adapted from Zhu et al. [19].
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A–C) Three ways of oat bran preparation using roller and pin milling techniques [52]. Three bran types were generated through roller and pin milling methods. Initially, groats were coarsely ground using corrugated rolls, followed by further size reduction with finer corrugations. Oat bran was formed from fractions retained on 600 μm and 85 μm sieves, while the fine fraction became break flour. Roller-milled coarse bran (A) combined coarse fractions from the second break system, roller-milled fine bran (B) involved narrowing gap sizes and using additional sizing rolls, and pin-milled bran (C) was produced through pin milling and subjected to sieving and bran finishing processes similar to roller-milled bran [52].
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