*2.1. Standards and Chemicals*

Analytical grade solvents were purchased from Carlo Erba. Sodium carbonate, hydrochloric acid and citric acid were from Sigma-Aldrich (Milan, Italy). The glucan contents were determined by the method published by McCleary and Codd [17] using a mushroom and yeast β-glucan kit (Cat. No. K-YBGL). The kit was obtained from Megazyme International (Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland).
