Application of high performance anion exchange chromatography to the study of carbohydrate changes in barley during malting

The determination of the carbohydrate composition of barley during its transformation into malt was performed using high performance anion-exchange chromatography coupled with pulsed amperometric detection. Two sets of conditions were developed to analyse arabinose, glucose, xylose, fructose and sucrose on the hand, and maltose, maltotriose, maltotetraose, isomaltose, isomaltotriose and beta-glucan degradation products on the other hand. A sizeable increase in the arabinose, xylose, glucose, cellobiose, maltose, isomaltose and maltotriose concentrations was observed. The sucrose and isomaltotriose contents decreased at the beginning of germination and then increased. Fructose showed little augmentation. The beta-glucan oligomers showed modifications depending heavily on the variety. The modifications in the beta-glucan oligomers content did not increase or decrease regularly during the germination process for each variety. This could be explained by the degradation of these residues to produce glucose and lower molecular weight residues. Moreover high molecular weight carbohydrates could be re-synthesised from simpler carbohydrates.