No abstract

Due to their prebiotic potential indigestible oligosaccharides became a major focus of research interest. In this study the growth of selected probiotic strains including lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, Lactococcus lactis, Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus, Pediococcus ssp. and Enterococcus faecium with the, raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) raffinose, stachyose and verbascose and galactomannan from guar bean Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (total guar carbohydrates, oligosaccharides (dp 2-4) and polysaccharides (dp > 5), obtained by size exclusion chromatography) were tested by means of turbidity measurements. RFOs were used by 75% of all strains, with some delay for the trisaccharide raffinose and the tetrasaccharide stachyose and a limited fermentation of the pentasaccharide verbascose. L. reuteri, P. pentosaceus and B. lactis HNO19™ were able to ferment not only raffinose and stachyose but also verbascose. Guar oligosaccharides were fermented by 15 out of 20 strains; P. acidilactici, L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus GG and B. animalis ssp. lactis BB12 metabolized them comparably well as glucose or galactose. Isolated guar polysaccharides were not fermented whereas total guar carbohydrates were fermented by 7 strains, apparently caused by the oligosaccharide content. The findings of this study may be important for functional food products especially for indigestible oligosaccharides which may cause adverse effects in the gut when not cleaved.

CB can significantly ameliorate diabetes-induced sexual dysfunction. Polysaccharide and saponin-rich aqueous extract appears to have the most suitable effects on diabetes and its associated effects on sexual functionality.

Arabinoxylans (AXs) are an important component of wheat and rye dough. They bind water, contribute to the formation of viscous dough and improve the quality of bread. For the application of AX fractions in bread making process, it is useful to record a quality profile of wheat fractions compared to the quality profile of rye fractions under standardized conditions. In this work water and alkali extractable AX containing fractions, from wheat- and rye wholemeal, were extracted under standardized conditions and characterized. For analysis of composition, structural features, and molecular dimension a combination of chemical, physicochemical, enzymatic and chromatographic techniques was applied. The molar mass distributions obtained by means of an innovative colorimetric pentose detection in the eluted SEC fractions were comparable for all under standardized conditions extracted AXs. The determined molar masses of AXs extracted both from wheat- and from rye grain were close to 2.0 × 10(5) g/mol for water extractable AXs and 3.0 × 10(5) g/mol for alkali extractable AXs. Different susceptibility to endoxylanase treatment, having been observed as differences in the SEC profiles, may be evidence of structural differences between AXs depending on their origin. The viscosities of AX solutions were strongly influenced by their molar mass and structure; samples being less susceptible to endoxylanase provided solutions of higher viscosity.