Oats, water-soluble polysaccharides

Preece and Hobkirk have attempted the fractionation of water-soluble, cereal polysaccharides (obtained from rye and oats), using zone electrophoresis on paper in a borate buffer at pH 11 and an acetate buffer at pH 4. The fractions were located on the pherogram by segmenting it, eluting... 

Laboratories have consistently reported that neither purified cellulose nor wheat bran have significant cholesterol-lowering effects ( ). From these observations we conclude that the water-insoluble types of polysaccharides have minimal cholesterol-lowering effects. In sharp contrast, purified water-soluble fibers such as pectin and guar have distinct hypocholesterolemlc effects. The cholesterol-lowering properties of water-soluble fibers are shared by fibers from quite diverse sources. Pectins are cell wall constituent of many plants and usually are extracted from citrus products. Oat gum is a gum extracted from oat bran while guar Is a storage polysaccharide extracted from the Indian cluster bean. 

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