How Do Arabinoxylan Films Interact with Water and Soil?

Cassie Anderson,Senay Simsek

doi:10.3390/foods8060213

Abstract

Biodegradable materials made from cereal arabinoxylan could provide an alternative source of packaging to replace current nonbiodegradable plastics. The main purpose of this research was to determine how arabinoxylan (AX) films made from wheat bran (WB) AX, maize bran (MB) AX, and dried distillers grain (DDG) AX made with either glycerol or sorbitol at varying levels (10, 25 or 50%) interacts with soil and water. The biodegradability of all films ranged from 49.4% biodegradable (DDG AX with 10% sorbitol) to 67.7% biodegradable (MB AX with 50% glycerol). In addition, the MB AX films with 25% sorbitol had the lowest moisture content at 9.7%, the MB AX films with 10% glycerol had the highest water solubility at 95.6%, and the MB AX films with 50% glycerol had the highest water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) at 90.8 g h−1 m−2. Despite these extreme trends in the MB AX films, the WB AX films were the least hydrophilic on average while the DDG AX films were the most hydrophilic on average. The 18 materials developed in this research demonstrate varying affinities for water and biodegradation. These materials can be used for many different packaging materials, based on their unique characteristics.

Highlights

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) and maize (Zea mays) are members of the Gramineae family and are two of the top three most commonly produced cereal crops [1,2]
One of the main components in these three byproducts is arabinoxylan (AX). It is the main type of non-starch polysaccharide present in wheat bran (WB), maize bran (MB), and dried distillers grain (DDG)
The WB, MB, and DDG utilized in this research were provided by the North Dakota State Mill (Grand Forks, ND, USA), Agricor, Inc. (Marion, Indiana), and Tharaldson Ethanol (Casselton, ND, USA), respectively

Summary

Introduction

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) and maize (Zea mays) are members of the Gramineae family and are two of the top three most commonly produced cereal crops [1,2]. The fruit of these cereals is known as a caryopsis and consists mainly of starch, protein, and non-starch polysaccharides [1,3]. Arabinoxylan is present in both wheat and maize cell walls, and it is one of the most common non-starch polysaccharides found on earth [5] It is made up of a backbone of β-1,4 linked xylose units that have O-2 and/or O-3 linked arabinose substituents [5,6,7]. Ferulic acid can be substituted on the xylose backbone in the

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