Isolated non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), especially isolated β-glucan, are reported to have prebiotic effects in pigs. However, little information is available on their possible functional properties when they are still present in the fibrous matrix of whole cereals. Hulless barleys (hB) are rich but variable sources of β-glucan. In order to evaluate their potential as functional feeds, an in...

The importance of wild barley from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the origin and domestication of cultivated barley has long been underestimated. Population-based phylogenetic analyses were performed to study the origin and genetic diversity of Chinese domesticated barley, and address the possibility that the Tibetan region in China was an independent center of barley domestication. Wild barley (Hord...