The washed sediments after removal of lipids were diluted with distilled water, yielding a suspension containing 15% (w/w) solids content. Some kinds of protease were employed according to their each optimum condition. After enzymatic hydrolysis, the suspension was heated at 80 1C for 15 min to deactivate the enzyme and cooled to room temperature. The insoluble residues were separated by centrifugation at 5000g for 10 min at room temperature and washed several times with cold distilled water until the supernatant did not contain any soluble protein detected by Lowry method. The supernatant was discarded and the wet b-D-glucans of yeast were collected.