Glu″ten (?), n. [L., glue: cf. F. gluten. See Glue.] (Chem.) The viscid, tenacious substance which gives adhesiveness to dough.
☞ Gluten is a complex and variable mixture of glutin or gliadin, vegetable fibrin, vegetable casein, oily material, etc., and is a very nutritious element of food. It may be separated from the flour of grain by subjecting this to a current of water, the starch and other soluble matters being thus washed out.
Gluten bread, bread containing a large proportion of gluten; — used in cases of diabetes. — Gluten casein(Chem.), a vegetable proteid found in the seeds of grasses, and extracted as a dark, amorphous, earthy mass. — Gluten fibrin(Chem.), a vegetable proteid found in the cereal grains, and extracted as an amorphous, brownish yellow substance.