The potential improvements of naked barley pretreatments on GABA, β-glucan, and antioxidant properties

• Published in: Food science & technology Vol. 130; p. 109698
• Main Authors: AL-Ansi, Waleed, Mahdi, Amer Ali, Al-Maqtari, Qais Ali, Mushtaq, Bilal Sajid, Ahmed, Aqsa, Karrar, Emad, Mohammed, Jalaleldeen Khaleel, Fan, Mingcong, Li, Yan, Qian, Haifeng, Wang, Li
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2020
• Subjects: Antioxidant activity; Fermentation; GABA; Germination; β-glucan; β-glucan; GABA; Fermentation; Antioxidant activity; Germination
• ISSN: 0023-6438; 1096-1127
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lwt.2020.109698

Naked barley is a low-use crop that contains noteworthy amounts of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and β-glucan. This work aimed to enhance the GABA, total phenolic compounds (TPC), and antioxidant properties with a satisfying amount of β-glucans. Different pretreatments were used to accomplish this aim: soaking, germination, fermentation, germination prior to fermentation, and fermentation prior to germination. All pretreatments enhanced the quality of Naked barley and significantly increased the quantity of GABA. However, germinated barley (GB) and germinated-then-fermented barley (GFB) achieved a noticeable increase in GABA contents of 11.9 and 10.3 mg/100 g, respectively, and maintained the highest possible level of β-glucan (5.41 and 5.66%, respectively) along with improving the antioxidant properties and TPC content. Results indicate that germination and germination prior to fermentation successfully enhanced GABA, antioxidant, phenolic compounds, and β-glucan, which suggests that GB and GFB could be utilized further as a valuable source of functional components in the industrial field. •Naked barley was pretreated to enhance γ-aminobutyric acid, antioxidant and β-glucan.•Pretreatments enhanced the antioxidant capacity and total phenolic compounds (TPC).•γ-aminobutyric acid content reached 11.9 mg/100g in germinated barley.•TPC content increased to 28.37 mg GAE/g in germinated-then-fermented barley.•Pretreatments of naked barley maintain a satisfying amount of β-glucan.