Influence of cereal grain non-starch polysaccharides such as beta-glucan and arabinoxylan in their native and hydrolysed forms on starch amylolysis

人类是在吃全麦食物的背景下进化的。我们的身体被设计为消耗和消化含有各种非淀粉多糖（NSP）（即膳食纤维的成分），植酸盐，酚类物质等的淀粉谷物，这些谷物具有健康益处。然而，在现代，高度精制的谷物成分如白色小麦粉、精米、珍珠大麦等基本上用作食品加工中的成分。这些精制成分中的非淀粉多糖、酚类物质、植酸盐等含量非常低，用于加工谷物食品中，以改善面粉功能，促进大批量加工，以及改善食品的感官特性（例如：更柔软、更白的烘焙食品或质地更好的糕点）。最近，随着社会越来越关注精致饮食如何对健康产生负面影响，现在要求回归更有营养的全谷物食品。 食品工业面临的困境是，尽管全谷物食品中的非淀粉多糖对健康有益，但它们对大批量食品加工产生负面影响，特别是对消费者已经习惯的感官质量产生负面影响。为了减轻NSP的这些负面影响，通常添加基于微生物的粗酶制剂（例如：木聚糖酶、β-葡聚糖酶等），主要用于水解NSP的目的。这在很大程度上是一个经验性的“黑箱”过程，其中的分子细节还没有得到很好的理解。我们知道，这些粗酶通过产生水解膳食纤维来改善食品的感官属性和加工能力。然而，NSP对人类健康的影响尚不清楚，特别是那些部分水解的NSP如何影响淀粉分解。 拟议的研究的目的是开发一个更好地了解一些NSP，在其天然和水解形式，将影响淀粉的淀粉分解。这项研究的结果预计将显示如何NSP将有利于加拿大食品工业和广大公众的健康问题的智能管理淀粉消化，肥胖，II型糖尿病和一般人类健康。

Humans evolved in the context of eating whole grain foods. Our body is designed to consume and digest starchy cereal grains that contain a variety of Non Starch Polysaccharides (NSPs) (i.e. components of dietary fibre), phytates, phenolics, etc. that confer health benefits. However, in modern times, highly refined cereal ingredients such as white wheat flour, polished rice, pearled barley, etc. are used substantially in food processing as ingredients. These refined ingredients are highly depleted in NSPs, phenolics, phytates, etc and are used in processed grain foods to improve flour functionality and facilitate high volume processing, as well as to improve the food's sensory characteristics (eg: softer, whiter baked goods or finer textured pastries). More recently, as society has become more concerned about how a refined diet can affect health negatively, it now demands a return to more nutritious and whole grain foods. The dilemma presented to the food industry is that although NSPs in whole grain foods have health benefits, they negatively impact the high volume food processing and especially the sensory qualities to which consumers have grown accustomed. In order to mitigate these negative effects of NSPs, microbial based crude enzyme preparations (eg: xylanase, beta-glucanase, etc) are often added, primarily for the purpose of hydrolyzing NSPs. This is largely an empirical, "black box" process, in which the molecular details are not well understood. We know that these crude enzymes improve food sensory attributes and processing capabilities by producing hydrolyzed dietary fibre. However, the impact of NSPs on human health is not clear, especially how those partially hydrolysed NSPs affect amylolysis. The objective of the proposed research is to develop a better understanding of how some NSPs, in their native and hydrolysed form, would influence starch amylolysis. The results of this study is expected to show how NSPs would be beneficial to the Canadian food industry and the general public at large for intelligent management of health issues around starch digestion, obesity, type II diabetes, and general human health.