Establishment of a quantification method for β-glucans and their immune activity potential for quality control of β-glucan containing products

Beta glucans are complex glucose polymers well known for their immune modulatory properties. Therefore they are used and advertised in dietary supplements. Unfortunately there is no standardized test system for quality control of such health-related foods. This approach combined wet chemical and enzyme-based quantification methods (e.g. aniline blue, Glucatell (R)) with a cytokine secretion assay as parameter for immune activation to resolve this problem and to establish a quality control system for 13-glucan containing products and extracts. Commercially available pure 13-glucans with different origin and structure were used in this study. None of the methods allowed an accurate 13-glucan quantification. Most promising was the test kit K-EBHLG (Megazyme). However, cytokine secretion from whole blood was detectable under the influence of 13-glucans, but there was no correlation with the quantification results using the commercially available kits. Therefore, the quality control of 13-glucan containing products needs further efforts.

Automated summary

Despite efforts to develop methods for quality control of products containing beta glucans, there is currently no accurate way to quantify beta glucans. Further research is needed in order to establish a reliable quality control system for these products.