Application of high performance anion exchange chromatography to the studyof carbohydrate changes in barley during malting

The determination of the carbohydrate composition of barley during its tran sformation into malt was performed using high performance anion-exchange ch romatography coupled with pulsed amperometric detection. Two sets of condit ions were developed to analyse arabinose, glucose, xylose, fructose and suc rose on the hand, and maltose, maltotriose, maltotetraose, isomaltose, isom altotriose and beta-glucan degradation products on the other hand. A sizeab le increase in the arabinose, xylose, glucose, cellobiose, maltose, isomalt ose and maltotriose concentrations was observed. The sucrose and isomaltotr iose contents decreased at the beginning of germination and then increased. Fructose showed little augmentation. The beta-glucan oligomers showed modi fications depending heavily on the variety. The modifications in the beta-g lucan oligomers content did not increase or decrease regularly during the g ermination process for each variety. This could be explained by the degrada tion of these residues to produce glucose and lower molecular weight residu es. Moreover high molecular weight carbohydrates could be re-synthesised fr om simpler carbohydrates.