Bran

BRAN, more or less large flat particles obtained as waste during the grinding of grain from bread plants, representing the husks of bread grains, but completely freed from the adjacent floury and germ parts. Due to the fact that bran has significantly less commercial value than flour, attempts are made through further processing (grinding, sifting, blowing, etc.) to extract as many floury particles as possible from the bran. However, this type of processing is economically advantageous only up to a certain limit, since flour from bran is of low grade, dark due to the admixture of finely ground grain husks, and easily becomes rancid due to the high content of germ parts rich in fat. Depending on the type and variety of bread grains and the method of their grinding, the amount of bran obtained during milling varies, ranging from 4-25 percent or more of the total weight of the grain. Hard wheat varieties give a significantly smaller percentage of bran than soft ones. According to König, bran has the following average composition: Quality of flour from which bread was baked Percentage of nitrogen digestibility in bread Bran-free flour ... ... with admixture of coarse particles 79.88 57.04 65.49 55.54 Ordinary flour with 50% admixture Coarse-ground flour with admixture The same conclusions as Pokrovsky were reached by Neumann, studying on himself the digestibility of wheat and rye bread baked from flour of 70, 85, 94 and 100% extraction: the higher the percentage of extraction, i.e., the more flour contains bran particles, the worse the digestibility of bread baked from it. Thus, the presence of too large a quantity of bran in bread cannot be considered rational; it is much more expedient to sieve out the larger part of bran from flour and use it for fattening meat and dairy cattle, which digest it well and as a result yield tasty meat and rich fat milk. The somewhat higher content of phosphorus, phytin, lecithin and vitamin B in bread from bran has no great practical significance, since these substances are absorbed in sufficient quantities from ordinary low-bran bread and other food products with proper nutrition. The presence of a small amount of bran in bread does not raise objections from the point of view of proper nutrition and is often very desirable. Such bread is digested well, and its taste is liked by many more than that of bran-free bread. In addition, a moderate amount of bran brings certain benefits, increasing intestinal peristalsis and eliminating constipation caused by intestinal muscle laxity. Bread made from completely white bran-free flour, Noorden considers a gastronomic luxury and proposes to impose a special excise tax on it.--With the aim of making bran more suitable for human nutrition and increasing its digestibility, various methods of processing it have been tried. Finkler proposed treating bran with lime water and NaCl, and then grinding it on special roller machines. Other authors recommend subjecting bran to lactic acid fermentation, for example, treating them with sour kvass or whey. However, all methods of processing bran proposed so far with the aim of making them easily digestible for humans are uneconomical, complicated and troublesome, and therefore have not found wide practical application. The most practical method is apparently that of Klopfer, in which not bran but the whole grain is subjected to processing; a very thin indigestible skin is removed from it, while the floury, nutritionally valuable part of the bran layer remains. - Numerous baking tests in the USA have shown that an acid extract (0.2% HCl) from bran has a beneficial effect on bread dough rising, increasing the volume and improving the color and porosity of the baked bread.

N. Ignatov. Bran in pharmacy. A coarse powder from residues obtained after removing fat from seeds by pressing (cake) or extraction (meal). Used are: almond bran, Placenta Amygdalarum, as an admixture to water for washing hands and face in order to obtain the effect of a fine emulsion of fat and protein substances; flax bran, Placenta Lini, as a material that swells greatly with water for poultices; mustard bran, Placenta Sinapis, as material for mustard plasters. In the VPhU, flax flour, Farina Lini, a powder of unrefined flax seeds, is accepted instead of flax bran; the preparation is unstable due to the easy rancidity of the flax oil rich in unsaturated acids. In medicine, water decoctions of bread bran are used for preparing medicinal baths (see), which moderate skin irritation. In addition, in avitaminotic diseases caused by the absence of vitamin B in food, bran and extracts from them are specific therapeutic agents.