University of Helsinki
Investigation of the effect of birch gum on gut health made a giant leap after the university loosened COVID-19 restrictions, and we got back into the lab. We started to develop two different methods for analyzing birch glucuronoxylan. First, we wanted to analyze whether short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria could utilize birch glucuronoxylan. These short-chain fatty acids produced by gut microbes from some dietary fibers have been found to be beneficial metabolites. They can, for example, protect against colorectal cancer or metabolic syndrome. Although short-chain fatty acids have been investigated in multiple studies, we previously had not measured them from fecal samples. Two methods based on gas chromatography (GC) were tested and modified before we found a protocol that we were happy with.
Birch glucuronoxylan and different diets were analyzed with pyrolysis gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry (pyr-GC/MS). In this way, we could also evaluate the amount and effect of lignin in the diets. The results from both methods have been promising, and we cannot wait for them to be published.