tVarious cereal grains including barley (three varieties: moderate (MT), cold (CT), and dry(DT)), corn (two hybrids: early (EM) and late maturity (LM)), and sorghum (two varieties:new type (NT) and conventional type (OT)) were used to characterize carbohydrate molecu-lar structural features in cereal grains using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).Molecular spectral peak bands assessed included: A 860 (non structure carbohydrate:ca. 880–818 cm−1), A 928 (non-structure carbohydrate: ca. 946–881 cm−1), total carbohy-drate (TCHO: ca.1186–947 cm−1) with three major component peaks (ca. 1017, 1074, and1152 cm−1), and cellulosic compounds (ca. 1291–1186 cm−1). The results showed carbo-hydrate molecular spectral features differed among cereal grains. The infrared absorbanceintensities of A 860, A 928, TCHO component peaks, and cellulosic compounds were greaterfor barley than those for both corn and sorghum grains which were similar to each other.These spectral intensities were greater for EM than those for LM in corn hybrids, and greaterfor OT than for NT in sorghum cultivars. These structural differences may impact the car-bohydrate utilization and availability of cereal grains. Results from multivariate spectralanalysis indicated that there were still structural similarities in cereal grains and varietieswithin each type of grain.

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