Extraction and prebiotic potential of β-glucan from highland barley and its application in probiotic microcapsules

The objective of this research was to extract β-glucan from highland barley (HBBG), illustrate its prebiotic potentials and explore the effects of co-microencapsulation of HBBG with probiotics to the survival of cells during gastrointestinal digestion. After applied HBBG by in vitro fermentation, both significant increases in gas production and OD600 value as well as remarkable reductions in pH were obtained corresponding with abundant production of short chain fatty acids. Compared with the control microcapsule, higher encapsulation efficiencies and lower moisture contents were obtained after the addition of HBBG. During gastrointestinal digestion, the survival of cells in microcapsules with adding HBBG were significantly improved and the more of the HBBG addition, the higher of the viability after digestion, which corresponding with fewer amounts of cracked pieces. The current study demonstrates that HBBG owns prebiotic potential and co-microencapsulation of HBBG with probiotic bacteria could provide better protective effects during gastrointestinal digestion.