Research on the Advanced Bioavailability of Extruded Colloidal Oatmeal

Abstract

Oatmeal is the food product resulting from the grinding or rolling of oat grain (Avena sativa L.) (which is thus crushed into thin flakes) after dehulling. Further, the finely milled product is referred to as colloidal oatmeal (COM). Oat grain has natural phytochemicals such as phenolic compounds, tocols, and polysaccharides. They lead to anti-irritancy, redness reduction and moisturization effects for humans. For that reason, COM was traditionally used as a bath treatment or skincare ingredient in Europe and the United States. In this research, we compared extruded colloidal oatmeal (ExtCOM) which added a hydrothermal process before fine milling and ordinary COM in terms of particle size distribution, β-glucan content and DPPH radical quenching activity. As a result, ExtCOM has a smaller particle size and enhanced content of both β-glucan and antioxidant elucidated in water. We concluded that the difference is due to the extrusion process, which affects mainly the physiological structure of oat grain. This result is expected to strongly improve the bioavailability of COM as a healthcare ingredient.