The FT-IR fin
gerprint of wheat endosperm arabinoxylan (AX) was investi
gated usin
g a set ofpolysaccharides exhibitin
g variation of their de
gree of substitution and xylo-oli
gosaccharides comprisin
gxylose units mono- or disubstituted by arabinose residues. Substitution of the xylose backbone byarabinose side units was more particularly studied in the 1000-800 cm
-1 spectral re
gion, by takin
gadvanta
ge of second-derivative enhancement. The 920-1020 cm
-1 spectral re
gion revealed twoabsorption bands at 984 and 958 cm
-1, the intensities of which varied accordin
g to the de
gree ofsubstitution. Whereas the intensity of the band at 958 cm
-1 increased with the de
gree of substitution,that at 984 cm
-1 decreased. The second-derivative spectral data of xylo-oli
gosaccharides indicatedthat these chan
ges could be attributed to substitution of the xylan backbone by arabinose residues,and the band at 958 cm
-1 was ascribed to the presence of disubstituted xylose residues. Principalcomponent analysis of FT-IR spectra of model mixtures of AX,
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glucans, and arabino
galactanssu
ggested that it is possible to evaluate the relative proportions of the polymers and de
gree ofsubstitution of AX in complex mixtures such as the cell wall of cereal
grains.Keywords: Hemicellulose;
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glucan; arabino
galactan; pentosan; wheat; principal component analysis