Using vibrational molecular spectroscopy to reveal association of steam-flaking induced carbohydrates molecular structural changes with grain fractionation, biodigestion and biodegradation

Abstract

Advanced vibrational molecular spectroscopy has been developed as a rapid and non-destructive tool to reveal intrinsic molecular structure conformation of biological tissues. However, this technique has not been used to systematically study flaking induced structure changes at a molecular level. The objective of this study was to use vibrational molecular spectroscopy to reveal association between steam flaking induced CHO molecular structural changes in relation to grain CHO fractionation, predicted CHO biodegradation and biodigestion in ruminant system. The Attenuate Total Reflectance Fourier-transform Vibrational Molecular Spectroscopy (ATR-Ft/VMS) at SRP Key Lab of Molecular Structure and Molecular Nutrition, Ministry of Agriculture Strategic Research Chair Program (SRP, University of Saskatchewan) was applied in this study. The fractionation, predicted biodegradation and biodigestion were evaluated using the Cornell Net Carbohydrate Protein System. The results show that: (1) The steam flaking induced significant changes in CHO subfractions, CHO biodegradation and biodigestion in ruminant system. There were significant differences between non-processed (raw) and steam flaked grain corn (P<.01); (2) The ATR-Ft/VMS molecular technique was able to detect the processing induced CHO molecular structure changes; (3) Induced CHO molecular structure spectral features are significantly correlated (P<.05) to CHO subfractions, CHO biodegradation and biodigestion and could be applied to potentially predict CHO biodegradation (R2=0.87, RSD=0.74, P<.01) and intestinal digestible undegraded CHO (R2=0.87, RSD=0.24, P<.01). In summary, the processing induced molecular CHO structure changes in grain corn could be revealed by the ATR-Ft/VMS vibrational molecular spectroscopy. These molecular structure changes in grain were potentially associated with CHO biodegradation and biodigestion.