Study on the properties of water-extractable corn bran arabinoxylan hydrogel

Water-extractable feruloylated arabinoxylan was extracted from corn bran. The oxidative gelation of WEAX was investigated by using peroxidase/H2O2 system and laccase/O2 system as catalyzer, respectively. SEM was used to characterize the structure of lyophilized WEAX hydrogel. Rheology property, thermal property and swelling capacity of WEAX gels were also investigated. The hydrogels prepared by peroxidase/H2O2 oxidative cross-linking, compared to the hydrogels oxidated by laccase/O2 system, showed faster gelation rate. Thermal analysis revealed the decomposition temperature of both kind of WEAX gels at about 250℃. Due to the protonation effect, the swelling of both kind of WEAX gels in HCl solution was lower than in water.