Md. Fleury et al., TOTAL, WATER-SOLUBLE AND ACID-SOLUBLE ARABINOXYLANS IN WESTERN CANADIAN BARLEYS, Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 77(2), 1997, pp. 191-196
Non-starch polysaccharides, such as beta-glucan and arabinoxylan, are
often implicated as a cause of the poor feeding value of barley for po
ultry. Levels of arabinoxylan in Canadian barley types, though, have n
ot been thoroughly investigated. Total, water-extract and acid-extract
arabinoxylan levels were determined for six-rowed (covered), two-rowe
d (covered) and hulless (both six- and two-rowed) barley (Hordeum vulg
are) cultivars and genotypes grown in the 1991 Western Canadian Parley
Cooperative Program. Analyses were performed using a dichromatic modi
fication of the orcinol method. The six-rowed barley types contained s
ignificantly greater total, water-extract and acid-extract arabinoxyla
n concentrations than hulless or two-rowed types (P < 0.05). In hulles
s barley, total (P < 0.01), water-extract (P < 0.01), and acid-extract
(P > 0.05) levels of arabinoxylan were, respectively, less than, grea
ter than and similar to levels of arabinoxylan in samples of two-rowed
barley. Environment had a significant effect on levels of water-extra
ct (P < 0.01) and acid-extract(P < 0.05) arabinoxylan. Genetic differe
nces affected the arabinoxylan content of cultivars and genotypes with
in each of the barley types (P < 0.05). Levels of acid-extract arabino
xylan were positively correlated with the viscosities of acid extracts
of the barleys (P < 0.001).