Valorisation of cereal brans for functional food applications

Abstract

Cereal bran, a major by-product of the milling industry, is a rich source of dietary fibre minerals and phytochemicals. Despite having proven functional prebiotic effects, these are neglected due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors, limited shelf life, and lack of aesthetic appeal. In the present study, finger millet, kodo millet, and rice bran were chemo-enzymatically modified and their prebiotic potential was evaluated using human in-vitro fecal batch fermentation and in-vivo feeding in mice. In-vitro and in-vivo experiments showed the beneficial modulation of selected healthy gut bacteria such as Bifidobacteria, Lactobacillus and Bacteroidetes. Modified cereal brans (MCBs) reduced HFD-induced complications i.e attenuating body weight gain, insulin resistance, inflammation, oxidative stress, gut permeability, and dyslipidemia in HFD-induced obese mice. Combination of all the three brans could be used as functional food ingredients in native form or in the modified form mixing with different food matrices such as wheat flour etc. Based on our results and those from multiple other research groups it is expected that the bran can be used for alleviating life style disorders such as obesity, insulin resistance, type-2 diabetes, as well as inflammatory gut disorders. newline