The influence of oxidizing agents on water extracts of rye flour

The main constituents of rye flour extracts are proteins and pentosans. After cross-linking under the action of oxidizing agents those components are able to bind much more water than in their native (prior to modifications) state. As a consequence rheological properties of extract are changed.It was observed that kinematic viscosity of water extract of rye flour decreases rapidly with time. The reason for this behavior could be high enzymatic activity of flour extract.It was also found that the addition of hydrogen peroxide in the absence of additional peroxidase (which is naturally present in 1:9 or 1:1 water extracts of flour) causes the greatest increase in viscosity, due to the cross-linking of soluble polymers. Moreover after the addition of H₂O₂ to water extracts strong gels were obtained, which were characterized by tan δ = 0.5 (tan δ < 1). Moreover G′ was independent of frequency, which also suggests cross-linking of the pentosans.The addition of ascorbic acid, which is known to act preferably on gluten proteins, to 1:9 or 1:1 flour extracts had only a little effect on viscosity. In this case the values of tan δ = 0.9 were close to 1, which is typical for a weak gel.The application of inactivated rye flour extract, containing mainly proteins and pentosans, proved stronger effect of H₂O₂ in comparison to ascorbic acid on polymer cross-linking, but only after the addition of peroxidase. The gel obtained with H₂O₂ and peroxidase was also characterized by low tan δ = 0.4.The results indicate, that pentosans are the main subject of cross-linking reactions in rye flour water extracts.