Partial removal of protein associated with arabinoxylans: Impact on the viscoelasticity, crosslinking content, and microstructure of the gels formed

Arabinoxylans (AX) treated with protease and dialyzed (AXP) or only dialyzed (AXD) formed gels showing an increase in the elastic modulus G' (1291 and 1419 Pa, respectively) and the ferulic acid dimers (3.34 and 3.10 mu g/mg polysaccharide, respectively) and trimers (0.51 and 0.53 mu g/mg polysaccharide, respectively) in comparison to AX gels (767 Pa, 0.56 and 0.12 mu g/mg polysaccharide, respectively). Nevertheless, the G' values and crosslinking contents were not different among the AXP and AXD gels, suggesting that the amount of protein removed (54%) does not affect these parameters. Confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis showed that AXP treatment promotes the homogeneity of the gels. In addition, scanning electron microscopy observations indicated that AXD and particularly AXP gels had a more compact microstructure. Thus, the partial removal of protein associated with AX does not impact the viscoelasticity and crosslinking content of the gels formed but could improve their microstructural characteristics. (C) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.