Cereal β-glucan describes a group of soluble dietary fiber primarily found in barley and oats. It is characterized by the mixed occurrence of β-(1,3) and β-(1,4) bonds between the glucose monomers, forming long polysaccharide chains with unique properties. Alongside their technological benefits, they exhibit a number of health–beneficial properties. Nevertheless, β-glucan applications as nutraceutical food ingredient, are rarely utilized. The changes in physicochemical (molar mass, solubility and viscosity) and health–beneficial (glycemic control, lowering of blood glucose) properties during food processing and storage are a major drawback. The understanding of the complex mechanisms behind the health benefits of β-glucan is still incomplete. In contrast to original believes, it becomes evident from recent literature, that physiological properties are not only based on the dose administered. A more thorough view on the molecule and its structure–size–function relationship is required to understand the impact of molar mass, molar ratio, solubility and viscosity. Therefore, this review evaluates the recent scientific data to identify β-glucan key properties responsible for the nutraceutical function in the final product. This provides a guideline for future research which characteristics need careful monitoring and preservation throughout processing and help to fully utilize cereal β-glucan as nutraceutical ingredient.

Deep-fat frying is an important process used worldwide for the preparation of foods. Due to oxidation, hydrolysis, decomposition and oligomerization, numerous polar compounds are formed. These compounds change the physical, nutritional and sensory properties of the oil or fat. The standard methods of the German Society for Fat Science for the assessment of the quality of frying fats are time consuming and cost intensive. Therefore, alternative cost-effective and sensitive rapid methods, which ideally allow the quantitative determination of the quality of frying fats “in-line” in the deep-frying pan are needed. Sunflower oil and palm fat were thermally and oxidatively degraded in a beaker at atmospheric pressure under intensive stirring for 76 h at 175 °C. To evaluate the development of the physical properties during heat treatment, the viscosity and dielectric constant of these oils were measured. The temperature in a deep-frying pan can vary within a wide range (160–190 °C), and the viscosity and dielectric constant show a strong temperature dependence. Therefore, it was necessary to measure the temperature dependence of the viscosity and dielectric constant of the different degraded oils. Additionally, their chemical properties were characterized by high-performance gel permeation chromatography and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The determination of the dielectric constant, which is directly correlated with the concentration of polar compounds, seems to be the best method for the assessment of the quality of used frying oils.

The bran accounts for approximately 25% of the wheat kernel but is currently only a by-product, used as animal feed. However, due to its high arabinoxylan content it could be a valuable raw material for food production. Arabinoxylans cannot be digested in the human intestine but are intensely studied for their health-beneficial properties. These include glycemic control by formation of a highly viscous gel in the intestine, and hence delaying starch digestion, alongside an increase in short chain fatty acids. To apply sufficient amounts of arabinoxylan for health-beneficial effects, extraction and concentration is required. Alkaline/oxidative conditions are commonly used, but for potential food applications more cost-efficient methods, without hazardous chemicals, are required. Therefore, this study aimed to optimize the conditions for hydrothermal extraction (extraction time and temperature) at laboratory-scale and to compare the results to an established alkaline/oxidative method. The resulting extracts were characterized for yield, purity, arabinoxylan molecular mass, arabinose/xylose ratio, and viscosity to evaluate the quality of the method. For the hydrothermal extraction, an extraction time of 1 h at 160 °C and 6.5 bar gave the best results. However, even these optimized conditions resulted in lower extract purity and severely degraded arabinoxylans. Although further optimization of the hydrothermal process is required, the present work builds an important foundation for the development of an industrial hydrothermal extraction method.

A valence instability of Eu in ${\text{EuPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ $\left(0\le x\le 1\right)$ was discussed controversially in the past. In a joint theoretical and experimental study we investigate a large series of ${\text{EuPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ and ${\text{GdPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ compounds. Characterization by x-ray diffraction, metallography, energy-, and wavelength-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy as well as chemical analysis determine an existence range of ${\text{EuPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ up to $x\le 0.53$ and $x\le 0.42$ for the ${\text{GdPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ compounds, respectively. Our density-functional-based electronic structure calculation predict a valence change in ${\text{EuPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ above $x_c^{\text{DFT}}=0.19\pm 0.02$ from a nonmagnetic ${\text{Eu}}^{3+}$ state into a magnetic ${\text{Eu}}^{2+}$ state which is reflected in a discontinuity of the lattice parameter. In contrast, the related Gd compounds with a stable ${\text{Gd}}^{3+}$ state exhibit an almost linear behavior of the lattice parameter following Vegard’s law. Consistent with the calculations, the x-ray diffraction data show a kink in the lattice parameter for ${\text{EuPd}}_3{\text{B}}_x$ at $x_c^{\text{XRD}}=0.22\pm 0.02$. X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements assign this kink to a transition into a heterogeneous mixed valence state for Eu with a critical B content $x_c^{\text{XAS}}=0.22\pm 0.03$. The observed change in the mean Eu valence from ${\text{Eu}}^{3+}$ $\left(x\le 0.2\right)$ toward ${\text{Eu}}^{2.5+}$ $\left(x=0.5\right)$ is supported by magnetic susceptibility and specific-heat data.

Amaranth and finger millet are important food security crops in Africa but show poor bread making ability, even in composite wheat breads. Malting and steaming are promising approaches to improve composite bread quality, which have not been fully explored yet. Therefore, in this study, wheat was blended with native, steamed or malted finger millet or amaranth in the ratio of 70:30. Wheat/native amaranth (WHE-NAM) and wheat/malted amaranth (WHE-MAM) had longer dough development times and higher dough stabilities, water absorption capacities and farinograph quality numbers than wheat/steamed amaranth (WHE-SAM), wheat/native finger millet (WHE-NFM), wheat/steamed finger millet (WHE-SFM) or wheat/malted finger millet (WHE-MFM). The WHE-NAM and WHE-MAM breads had lower crumb firmness and chewiness, higher resilience and cohesiveness and lighter colours than WHE-NFM, WHE-SFM and WHE-MFM. Starch and protein digestibility of composite breads were not different (p > 0.05) from each other and ranged between 95–98% and 83–91%, respectively. Composite breads had higher ash (1.9–2.5 g/100 g), dietary fibre (5.7–7.1 g/100 g), phenolic acid (60–122 mg/100 g) and phytate contents (551–669 mg/100 g) than wheat bread (ash 1.6 g/100 g; dietary fibre 4.5 g/100 g; phenolic acids 59 mg/100 g; phytate 170 mg/100 g). The WHE-NAM and WHE-MAM breads possessed the best crumb texture and nutritional profile among the composite breads.