Studies have associated the regular consumption of barley with its potential to reduce the risk of certain diseases, such as chronic heart disease, colon cancer, high blood pressure and gallstones.
Whole grain barley has high levels of dietary fiber (14.8 g/100 g raw material) and good levels of other bioactive compounds, vitamin B and E and also minerals, such as iron (6 mg/100 g raw material), zinc (3.3 mg/100 g raw material), and calcium (50 mg/100 g raw material).
Due to its high viscosity in aqueous media, the soluble cell wall polysaccharide (1→3),(1→4)-β-glucan is an important nutritional component. β-glucan play a pivotal role as nutraceutical food in preventing cardiovascular diseases, controlling diabetes mellitus, regulating cholesterol level in body.
Barley is a good source of dietary phenolic compounds, which can be found free as well as bound to fiber. The flavanols, especially catechin, procyanidins and prodelphinidins, are the main compounds in the free phenolic fraction of barley grain.
Barley has a significantly higher protein content (10–20%) compared to corn (9.5%), rice bran (10–16%), and wheat (14%). The storage proteins in barley grains belong to two solubility classes, namely globulins (a fraction soluble in dilute salt solutions) and prolamins (a fraction soluble in aqueous alcohols).
Barley protein contains essential amino acids and is characterized by desirable functional properties (such as elasticity, water holding, and emulsifying capacity), which makes it an ideal component of food supplements.
Barley protein is rich in prolamin storage proteins (hordeins) and has moderate nutritional quality, being particularly deficient in lysine. These hordeins are not single proteins but complex polymorphic mixtures of polypeptides. β-hordein is the largest fraction accounting for between 70 and 90% of the total hordein content, and it is the major storage protein of the barley grain. β-hordein can be further broken down into subunits B1, B2 and B3 based on their electrophoretic capabilities.
The increase of protein content is accompanied by decreases in essential amino acids, mainly lysine. It was suggested that nutritional quality of the grain decreases with increasing grain protein contents as an increasing proportion of the nitrogen is incorporated into prolamin storage proteins.
The other barley proteins consist of a mix of albumins, globulins and glutelin. Globulins cover 10–20% of the total protein content of barley grains.
Nutrient in barley grain
