Health-related effects and improving extractability of cereal arabinoxylans

[Display omitted] •Arabinoxylans (AXs) are major dietary fiber found in many cereals.•AXs consumption has many health benefits.•Several methods are used to extract AXs with various degrees of success.•AXs can modulate the immune response. Arabinoxylans (AXs) are major dietary fibers. They are composed of backbone chains of β-(1–4)-linked xylose residues to which α-l-arabinose are linked in the second and/or third carbon positions. Recently, AXs have attracted a great deal of attention because of their biological activities such as their immunomodulatory potential. Extraction of AXs has some difficulties; therefore, various methods have been used to increase the extractability of AXs with varying degrees of success, such as alkaline, enzymatic, mechanical extraction. However, some of these treatments have been reported to be either expensive, such as enzymatic treatments, or produce hazardous wastes and are non-environmentally friendly, such as alkaline treatments. On the other hand, mechanical assisted extraction, especially extrusion cooking, is an innovative pre-treatment that has been used to increase the solubility of AXs. The aim of the current review article is to point out the health-related effects and to discuss the current research on the extraction methods of AXs.