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THE EFFECT OF β‐GLUCAN MOLECULAR WEIGHT ON THE SENSITIVITY OF DYE BINDING ASSAY PROCEDURES FOR β‐GLUCAN ESTIMATION
Author(s) -
Anderson I. W.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of the institute of brewing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.523
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2050-0416
pISSN - 0046-9750
DOI - 10.1002/j.2050-0416.1990.tb01038.x
Subject(s) - congo red , glucan , glucanase , cellulase , chemistry , trichoderma viride , chromatography , polysaccharide , hydrolysis , molecular mass , biochemistry , enzyme , food science , organic chemistry , adsorption
An assay procedure has been developed for quantifying β‐glucan, based upon its reaction with the dye Congo Red. The sensitivity of this method to changes in β‐glucan molecular weight has been determined using β‐glucans prepared from standard material by acid hydrolysis and comparison has been made with a Calcofluor‐based method for quantifying β‐glucans. The Congo Red assay was found to be optimally sensitive to β‐glucans with molecular weights of approximately 2.5 × 10 5 Daltons, whereas the Calcofluor assay was most sensitive to β‐glucans with molecular weights in excess of 5 × 10 4 Daltons. The purity of the β‐glucan used during this investigation was determined using an enzyme‐based procedure in which the polysaccharide was degraded to glucose by the addition of β‐glucanase. The β‐glucanase employed was partially‐purified from Trichoderma viride cellulase using a novel batch ion‐exchange method which is also described.