Structural Carbohydrates in a Plant Biomass: Correlations between the Detergent Fiber and Dietary Fiber Methods

We compared the detergent fiber and dietary fiber methods to analyze the cellulose and hemicellulose contents of commelinid and non-commelinid magnoliophyta biomass. A good linear correlation was found between both methods. Compared to the more accurate dietary fiber method, the detergent fiber method overestimates the content of cellulose, whereas the detergent fiber method, as compared to the dietary fiber method, overestimates and underestimates the hemicellulose content in commelinid and non-commelinid magnoliophyta biomass, respectively. Because of the good linear correlations, conversion factors were determined to predict the cellulose, hemicellulose, and xylan contents to be expected from the dietary fiber method, on the basis of analyses made by the faster, cheaper, and more commonly practiced detergent fiber method. Nevertheless, the dietary fiber method offers the advantage of providing the detailed composition of the hemicelluloses (xylan, arabinan, hemicellulosic glucan, galactan, and mannan), and that is of interest for biorefining purposes.