1H Diffusion-Ordered Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Analysis of Water-Extractable Arabinoxylan in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Flour

The structural heterogeneity of water-extractable arabinoxylan (WE-AX) impacts wheat flour functionality. 1 H diffusion-ordered (DOSY) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy revealed structural heterogeneity within WE-AX fractions obtained via graded ethanol precipitation. Combination with high-resolution 1 H- 1 H correlation NMR spectroscopy (COSY) allowed identifying the relationship between the xylose substitution patterns and diffusion properties of the subpopulations. WE-AX fractions contained distinct subpopulations with different diffusion rates. WE-AX subpopulations with a high self-diffusivity contained high levels of monosubstituted xylose. In contrast, those with a low self-diffusivity were rich in disubstituted xylose, suggesting that disubstitution mainly occurs in WE-AX molecules with large hydrodynamic volumes. In general, WE-AX fractions precipitating at higher and lower ethanol concentrations had higher and lower self-diffusivity and more and less complex substitution patterns. Although 1 H DOSY NMR, as performed in this study, was valuable for elucidating WE-AX structural heterogeneity, physical limitations arose when studying WE-AX populations with high molecular weight dispersions.