DP determinationThe degree of polymerization (DP) of inulin extracts was ana-lyzed by Agilent 1260 HPLC. A Shodex GPC OHpak SB-804 column(7.9 mm × 300 mm) was used with ultrapure water as the mobilephase at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. The column temperature wasset to 30◦C and injection volume was 20 L (Zhang, Zhang, Shi, Shi,& Zhang, 2009).Dextran standard substances were dispersed in ultrapurewater at a concentration of 10 mg/mL. The samples were deter-mined at the conditions described above. The standard curvewas drawn with the retention time (RT) of Dextran as theabscissa, and the logarithms of molecular weight (log Mw) as theordinate.All the inulin samples extracted were also dispersed in ultra-