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Agricultural by-products like wheat bran, are arabinoxylans rich substrates. The fractionantion of arabinoxylans allows the production of valuable molecules such as sugars (monomers and oligosides) and phenolic compounds (ferulic acid) with diversified applications (bioethanol, prebiotics, additives).

The aim of this study was to develop an eco-friendly integrated process using the enzymatic hydrolysis of wheat bran arabinoxylans for producing ferulic acid.

The strategy was to apply a thermophilic bacterial and hemicellulasic cocktail rich in xylanase, debranching enzymes (e.g. feruloyl-esterases) and xylosidase activities to fractionnate wheat bran. The hydrolysate obtained contained carbohydrates and ferulic acid. Both fractions were then separated by implementing a purification step by chromatography onto weak anionic resin. The purification step allowed recovering 67% of ferulic acid fixed on the resin and allowed recovering high concentration of ferulic acid (15g/L).

This work was carried out in collaboration between FARE lab (Reims) and UMR GENIAL (Massy) with a financial support from the “Region Champagne Ardenne”, the “Conseil Departemental de la Marne” and ”Reims Metropole” by  the  Chaire ABI (Reims).

Read: Dupoiron S, Lameloise ML, Pommet M, Bennaceur O, Lewandowski R, Allais F, Texeira ARS, Rémond C, Rakotoarivonina H. A novel and integrative process: From enzymatic fractionation of wheat bran with a hemicellulasic cocktail to the recovery of ferulic acid by weak anion exchange resin. Industrial Crops and Products 2017, 105, 148-155. 

Contacts: Dr Harivony Rakotoarivonina, harivony.rakotoarivonina@univ-reims.fr
                 Pr Caroline Rémond, caroline.remond@univ-reims.fr