Improved analysis of arabinoxylan-bound hydroxycinnamate conjugates in grass cell walls.

Overall, the new protocol for mild acidolysis of grass cell walls is both recovering more ferulate- and p-coumarate-arabinose conjugates from the arabinoxylan and cleaving less of them down to free ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, and dehydrodiferulates with just one arabinosyl ester. This cleaner method, especially when coupled with the orthogonal method for measuring monolignol hydroxycinnamate conjugates that have been incorporated into lignin, provides an enhanced tool to measure the extent of crosslinking in grass arabinoxylan chains, assisting in identification of useful grasses for biomass applications.