Effects of fermentation and heat treatments on bound-ferulic acid content and total antioxidant capacity of bread crust-like systems made of different whole grain flours

In this study, bread crust-like systems were prepared by heating (5, 15 and 30 min at 200 °C) freeze-dried fermented doughs obtained using different cereal grains. The flours of whole wheat, refined wheat, whole einkorn, whole rye, whole oat and whole maize were used. The effects of fermentation and heating on bound ferulic acid concentration and total antioxidant capacity were determined. Besides, high molecular weight fractions, containing also melanoidins formed in bread crust-like systems during heating were analyzed for their bound ferulic acid content and total antioxidant capacity. Increasing heating time at 200 °C also increased the amounts of high molecular weight fractions in the bread crust-like systems for all cereals. The total antioxidant capacity of bread crust-like samples increased significantly with heating time (p < 0.05). However, the opposite was true for the high molecular weight fractions of bread crust-like samples. Mean bound ferulic acid concentrations of different cereal flours were found to range between 78.3 mg/kg (for refined wheat) and 667.7 mg/kg (for whole einkorn). Heating had no significant effect on bound ferulic acid contents of bread crust-like systems. For all cereals, the highest concentrations of bound ferulic acid were detected in the high molecular weight fractions of bread crust-like systems heated at 200 °C for 5 min. However, bound ferulic acid concentrations significantly decreased in high molecular weight fractions as heating time increased (p < 0.05).