Nutraceuticals from barley flour, flaxseed and rice bran oil-Extraction, chromatographic analysis, microbiological analysis and pesticide estimation

In the present study, barley flour, flaxseed and rice bran oil were utilized for the extraction of pivotal nutraceuticals like beta-glucans, lignans and gamma oryzanol concentrate, respectively, followed by their characterization on several parameters. Beta-glucan fibres isolated from six-rowed hull-less barley variety (HBL-276) by alkaline treatment followed by precipitation with ethanol revealed high beta-glucan content (65.74 ± 1.02/100 g). The flaxseed lignan concentrate and gamma oryzanol concentrate upon chromatographic analysis yielded high secoisolariciresinol diglucoside content (30 mg/g) and detected four major components of oryzanol (cycloartenyl ferulate, 24-methylenecycloartanyl ferulate, campesteryl ferulate and β-sitosteryl ferulate), respectively. The GC/MS analysis for pesticide estimation in raw materials did not show the presence of any pesticide which led to the safe utilization of these raw materials for extraction. In microbiological analysis of the three isolates, gamma oryzanol concentrate revealed the lowest total plate count, yeast and mould count and coliform count as well. Practical applications The nutraceuticals selected in this study have tremendous health as well as medicinal benefits. These impart immense protection against chronic and degenerative diseases like cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Incorporation of these isolated ingredients having health and nutritional properties into various food formulations can impart significant health benefits primarily reduction in blood serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level, prevention in diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, minimizing atherosclerosis, etc. These isolates exhibited fairly less contamination with respect to microbiological analysis. Hence, including these isolated nutraceuticals into food products can be one of significant attempts towards the development of safe functional foods.