Content of Β–glucan in cereals grown by organic and conventional farming

3065120 Abstract . In this paper, the results obtained from the investigations performed on determination of the content of soluble dietary fibre component β –glucan in different cereals grown by conventional and organic farming method are presented. Because dietary fibre and its components have great importance for human and animal nutrition as well as health benefits, it was a need to investigate the content of β– glucan from cereal domestic origin. Standardized enzymatic–gravimetric method–a mixed–linkage β –glucan assay Megazyme Kit (Megazyme, Ireland) was used for determination of β –glucan content in 27 different cereal samples: barley, oat, rye and wheat, grown at three locations during 2013. The mean values of β– glucan content in cereals conventionally grown ranged from 34.41 ± 1.47 g.kg –1 db with barley, through 23.5 ± 4.52 g.kg –1 db and 15.61 ± 0.36 g.kg –1 db with oat and rye, respectively to 5.60 ± 1.02 g.kg –1 db with wheat. The mean values of β– glucan content in analyzed cereals which were organically grown ranged from 33.28 ± 2.34 g.kg –1 db with barley, 21.3 ± 1.87 g.kg –1 db with oat, 15.81 ± 2.30 g.kg –1 db with rye and to 6.04 ± 0.58 g.kg –1 db with wheat. Compared to the other cereals investigated, barley grown by either conventional or organic farming method proved to have the highest content of β –glucan demonstrating its good perspective in cereal processing and technology, food market and human and animal nutrition. The positive/negative correlations allow indirect evaluation of cereals in breeding work aimed at creation of forms with increased/decreased content of β– glucans in