Quote:
Originally Posted by JJ43
Have you brixxed your grass and if so what was the average brix of your grass?
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For those that don't know what brix is, you can check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brix which says (among other things):
"Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is a measurement of the dissolved sugar-to-water mass ratio of a liquid"
You can also check out this chart of common brix readings that comes from a link previously provided by JJ43:
http://www.highbrixgardens.com/highb...p%20Juices.pdf
Brix cannot be used with our wheatgrass juice (outdoor grown) as it always tests 0 on the brix scale.
In seeking a method of validating the quality of the juice, we purchased 2 refractometers several years ago. At the time, we were developing one of our juicers and wanted to see what technique proved to provide us with the highest density wheatgrass. To our surprise, the outdoor grown wheatgrass juice is not testable on the brix scale. This means there are absolutely no sugars of any type in the outdoor grown juice. Of course, that made us run around the house testing everything from soy sauce to fruit juices to milk. All of these showed readings at expected levels with extremely minor variances from one refractometer to the other; therefore, it was pretty quite clear that the equipment was in good operational order.
The statements made by a number of people (farmers / health enthusiasts not scientists) are that time allows the simple carbohydrates to convert into complex carbohydrates. As we fall squarely into the farmer/health enthusiast category that is the best explanation we have to offer. This leads us to believe that high brix readings are actually contraindicated as a measure of quality in the final product as it represents the level of immaturity rather than nutritional density. That said, it is likely that a high testing young plant (say 7 days old) would be better for you than a low testing plant at the same age.
As a refractometer cannot be used, we sought out the use of a spectrophotomer. A spectrophotomer allows you to measure light characteristics in specific frequency bands. We specifically use the light absorption to measure chlorophyll levels. In our experimentation we have found that as the grass matures, the sugars (which are present in the young plant) diminish as the chlorophyll rises.
Incidentally, when measuring chlorophyll with a spectrophotomer you find out something interesting. There are actually several types of chlorophyll includng chlorophyll A, B, C1, C2 and D. We do our testing on chlorophyll A as it is the only one directly involved in photosynthesis. It is interesting as things like algae and cyanobacteria which talk about high chlorophyll levels actually contain the C1, C2 and D varieties. That means that if chlorophyll is the active ingredient, you should expect different results with these products. You can read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyll