Experimental evidence for a semi-flexible conformation for arabinoxylans Original Research Article

Purified water-soluble arabinoxylans from wheat flour were deferuloylated and fractionated into six fractions by graded ethanol precipitation. Further fractionation by HPSEC on Sephacryl S500 resulted in 48 subfractions with low polydispersity index. Conformational characteristics (persistence length q, hydrodynamic parameter ν and Mark–Houwink exponent a) were similar among all subfractions and fitted with a semi-flexible conformation, whatever their structural characteristics. Substitution degree of the xylan backbone by arabinose residues has no influence on the conformation of arabinoxylans.