Combinatorial Enzyme Digestion of Arabinoxylan to Produce Feruloyl Oligosaccharides with Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities

The combinatorial enzyme approach was employed to convert pretreated wheat insoluble arabinoxylan oligosaccharides carrying feruloyl substituents. The feruloyl oligos (FOS) were isolated by preparative chromatography, and the active fractions pooled, freeze-dried, and demonstrated to possess both antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. The FOS showed a MIC value of 0.9% (w/v, 35˚C, 24 hr.) suppressing cell growth of the ATCC 8739 E. coli test organism. The FOS species was also found simultaneously to possess antioxidant activity. At 1% concentration, the FOS showed 636 ± 7 μM Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity.