Feruloylated arabinoxylans from wheat bran: Optimization of extraction process and validation at pilot scale

Abstract

The extraction of feruloylated arabinoxylan (AX) from wheat bran was optimized in terms of the pretreatments prior to subcritical water extraction and then validated at the pilot scale. Destarching of wheat bran was critical to improve the yields and purity of the extracted AX. Time evolution profiles from sequential extractions revealed differences in the extractability of different polysaccharides, whereby β-d-glucans were first extracted followed by AX. At longer extraction times, the AX population was more substituted and more uniform in terms of molar mass distribution. Validation of the process at pilot scale (with a scaling factor of 33) resulted in AXs with similar molecular characteristics as in the laboratory scale. Both solid to liquid ratio and extraction time were essential in improving the yields. Our study demonstrated scalability of the process, opening opportunities for the further development of multifunctional food and material products from the extracted AXs.