Bran

BRAN, more or less large flat particles obtained as a waste product in the milling of cereal grains, representing the seed coats of cereal grains completely freed from adjacent starchy and germ parts. In view of the fact that bran has a significantly lower commercial value than flour, efforts are made through further processing (grinding, sifting, blowing, etc.) to separate as many starchy particles from the bran as possible. However, this kind of processing is economically profitable only up to a certain limit, since the flour obtained from bran is of a low grade, dark due to the admixture of heavily pulverized grain seed coats, and easily goes rancid due to the high content of fat-rich germ parts. Depending on the kind and type of cereal grains and the method of their milling, the quantity of bran separated during milling varies, fluctuating within 4 to 25 percent or more of the total weight of the grain. Hard varieties of wheat yield a significantly lower percentage of bran than soft varieties. According to J. König, bran has the following average composition...

...middle...

3.06

13.38

2.72

13.44

3.17

13.25 I

4.19

fat 4.54 3.96 3.46 3.72 nitrogen-free substances 63.64 63.97 63.12 69.06 fiber 8.71 9.08 9.79 4.80 6.55 6.89 8.01 4.98 Wolf, considering bran as a fodder for animals, gives the following composition and digestibility of various kinds of bran: '... [The text continues discussing nutritional values, digestibility experiments by Rubner, Plagge, Lebbin, Pokrovsky, and Neumann, noting that high bran content lowers bread digestibility in humans, though moderate amounts stimulate bowel peristalsis and help prevent constipation. Processing methods by Finkler and Klopfer are also mentioned].

N. Ignatov. Bran in pharmaceutics: more or less coarse powder from residues obtained after removing fat from seeds by pressing (oil cakes) or extraction (meal). Commonly used: almond bran, Placenta Amygdalarum, as an admixture to water for washing hands and face to obtain the effect of a fine emulsion of fat and protein substances; linseed bran, Placenta Lini, as a material that swells strongly with water for poultices; mustard bran, Placenta Sinapis, as a material for mustard plasters. The All-Union Pharmacopoeia adopted linseed meal, Farina Lini, instead of linseed bran, which is a powder of un-defatted flax seeds; this preparation is unstable due to the easy rancidity of linseed oil rich in unsaturated acids. In medicine, aqueous decoctions of wheat bran are used to prepare medicinal baths (see), which moderate skin irritation. In addition, in avitaminotic diseases depending on the lack of vitamin B in food, bran and extracts from them are specific therapeutic agents.

BRAN (additional note on baking tests and processing).