Bioactive xylo-oligosaccharides from wheat bran soluble polysaccharides

Soluble polysaccharides (SP, 35 g) isolated from wheat bran (100 g) consisted mainly of arabinose and xylose with minor quantities of rhamnose, mannose, galactose and glucose. Wheat bran SP was subjected to purified endoxylanase (from 96 h ragi malt) treatment to obtain xylo-oligosaccharides (0.3 g/1 g wheat bran). The oligosaccharide mixture was purified on Biogel P-2 column into four major peaks designated as WO-1, WO-2, WO-3 and WO-4. Individual oligosaccharide purity was ascertained by HPLC and their composition was determined by GLC. The purified oligosaccharides were characterized by ESI-MS and 1H NMR analysis. WO-1 and WO-2 were identified as arabinose containing xylotetraose and xylotriose, respectively, whereas WO-3 and WO-4 were identified as unsubstituted xylotriose and xylobiose, respectively. In vitro studies carried out using Bifidobacterium spp and Lactobacillus spp suggested the prebiotic nature of the crude as well as purified xylo-oligosaccharides as revealed by growth characteristics such as high O.D. of the culture broth, decrease in its pH, increase in cell mass and the resultant fermentation products. β-xylanase, β-xylosidase, α-arabinofuranosidase, α/β-galactosidases and acetyl esterase activities were determined in 24 h old culture broth and xylanase activity (440–830 μU/ml) was found to be the most preponderant among all of them.