1. Introduction
Dietary fiber is part of an edible portion of plant
carbohydrates that is hardly digested and absorbed
in human digestive tract. It could be digested completely
or partially by bacteria in the large intestine.
The major compositions of dietary fiber could be
separated into two components, first is soluble
dietary fiber; pectin, β-glucan, glucomanan, etc. and
second is insoluble dietary fiber; cellulose, hemicellulose
and lignin. More and more applications of
dietary fiber from agricultural by-products or wastes
including pineapple core, cactus pear plant [1, 2]
and other sources as food ingredients for texture
modifying, gel forming and emulsifying have been
reported. Dietary fiber could also provide beneficial
physiological effects such as laxation, decreasing
blood cholesterol and glucose [3, 4].