Wheat chaff utilization: Evaluation of antioxidant capacity of waste streams generated by different pretreatments.

Wheat chaff was prepared for the enzymatic conversion by ultrasound, alkali or hydrothermal pretreatment while obtained waste liquid fractions were evaluated for their antioxidant activity. Waste streams were assayed by standard antioxidant methods to evaluate their potential as sources of valuable products. Results showed that all waste streams expressed high antioxidative activities with sample after alkali pretreatment being even superior in comparison to standard antioxidants. The most of the antioxidative activities of assayed waste fractions showed strong correlation with concentration of reducing sugars, which can be attributed to the identified presence of the xylooligosaccharides. Results indicated potential use of waste streams from investigated pretreatments for co-production of valuable products with high antioxidative capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]