12 - Barley grain beta glucan enrichment: status and opportunities

Abstract

Barley is one of the cereals having higher mixed linkage beta glucans in its grains. Beta glucans are the major components of endosperm cell walls, and these are considered very important from barley usage point of view. For making malt, the grain beta glucan content should be low, on the other hand for food barley beta glucan content should be high. Beta glucans have been shown to decrease the blood LDL cholesterol and also control the blood glucose levels. Therefore regular consumption of barley-based diet can help in maintaining cardiovascular health. For food products normally hulless or naked barley with higher content of beta glucans is desirable. In the last decade lot of research has been done on barley beta glucans at biochemical and molecular level and with this understanding, breeding for higher beta glucan barley genotypes can be little easier now. In this chapter current status of understanding of barley beta glucans biochemistry and molecular biology and future prospectus for their improvement along with barley-based food products have been discussed.