Composition of Polydextrose® Before and After Intestinal Degradation in Rats

The alternative carbohydrate Polydextrose® was separated by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) with an aminomodified silicagel and by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a silvercharged cation exchanger. It has been proved that Polydextrose® contains about 32% oligomers with a degree of polymerization of up to four. Because of the great variability of binding types between the glucose monomers, a satisfactory chromatographic separation is not yet possible. The degradation of Polydextrose® in the small intestine of rats is an accidental event; there are no especially resistent molecules in this process. Within 3 h after oral administration, the spectrogram of high‐and low‐molecular fractions of Polydextrose® was not changed by digestion in the small intestine irrespective the visible decrease of glucose. Thus, this study gives new insights into the molecular composition of Polydextrose®.