Barley malt extract is traditionally used to flavor the foods and it is the product of the germination of barley. During germination, the non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) in the cell wall of barley, constituting mainly arabinoxylans and β-glucans, are solubilised and partly degraded into smaller molecules (1).

Health

Barley and germinated barley contain large quantities of glutamine (2) an important substrate for colonic mucosa. Glutamine is easily degraded by the low pH in the stomach, but some of the glutamine is protected by the dietary fibre during digestion in the stomach (3) and therefore reaches the colon. In this study, starting from the premise that Butyric acid, one of the key products formed when β-glucans are degraded by the microbiota in the colon, has been proposed to be important for colonic health. Glutamine bound to the fibre may have similar effects once it has been liberated from the fibre in the colon. Both β-glucans and glutamine are found in high amounts in malted barley. Lactobacillus rhamnosus together with malt has been shown to increase the formation of butyric acid further in rats (4).

References__________________________________________________

 (1) Jamar C, Jardin Pd, Fauconnier M. Cell wall polysaccharides hydrolysis of malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.): a review. Biotechnol Agron Soc Environ. 2011;15:301–13

 (2)  Robertson JA, I'Anson KJA, Treimo J, Faulds CB, Brocklehurst TF, Eijsink VGH, et al. Profiling brewers’ spent grain for composition and microbial ecology at the site of production. LWT Food Sci Technol. 2010;43:890–6

 (3) Protein, and dietary fiber-rich new foodstuff from brewer's spent grain increased excretion of feces and jejunum mucosal protein content in rats.  Kanauchi O, Agata K  Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 1997 Jan; 61(1):29-33.

 (4) Prebiotic and synbiotic effects on rats fed malted barley with selected bacteria strains.  Zhong Y, Nyman M.  Food Nutr Res. 2014 Oct 6;58. doi: 10.3402/fnr.v58.24848. eCollection 2014.