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Cereal Chem 61:285 - 289.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Endosperm Cell Wall Modification in Sorghum Grain During Germination.

C. W. Glennie. Copyright 1984 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Both barley and sorghum are used as malting cereals, but sorghum endosperm cell walls, unlike those of barley, persist during germination. In spite of their persistence, however, the cell walls are subject to chemical and physical modification. This study was concerned with such changes. A procedure involving ball milling and wet sieving isolated the cell walls. They were isolated from Sorghum grain as well as from kernels after a six-day germination period. The cell walls from both of these isolations were examined by both transmission and scanning electron microscopy. They were also fractionated into water-and alkali- soluble fractions as well as an insoluble fraction. Large amounts of protein were associated with the cell walls isolated from grain, but germination reduced this from 46 to 19%. During this period, the amount of cell wall was reduced, with the water-and alkali-soluble fractions having the biggest reductions. Electron micrographs revealed extensive pitting during germination. Diferulic and ferulic acids were the only polyphenols detected in the isolated cell walls. They were found associated with the alkali fraction, and germination did not cause any reduction in their content.

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