Effect of hawthorn polyphenol extracts on the physicochemical properties and digestibility of corn starch.

To investigate the effect of hawthorn polyphenols on the physicochemical properties and digestibility of corn starch, different proportions (1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% [w/w]) of hawthorn polyphenol extracts (HPEs) were mixed with corn starch, and their physicochemical properties and digestive properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Rapid Visco Analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and in vitro/in vivo analysis. Results indicated that small V-type crystal starch tended to be formed in the samples, and the addition of HPEs reduced the viscosity, prolonged the gelatinization temperature of corn starch, and increased the proportion of slowly digestible starch and resistant starch of the corn starch, which accounted for 36.32% ± 1.05% and 33.32% ± 4.07%, respectively. Compared with the raw corn starch, the postprandial blood glucose of mice that were administered the hawthorn polyphenols decreased significantly: the blood glucose peak (30 min) decreased from 14.30 ± 1.52 to 11.77 ± 1.21 mmol/L. Our study might provide some basic theoretical support for the application of hawthorn polyphenols in healthy starchy food processing.

Effect of annealing treatment on the physicochemical properties and enzymatic hydrolysis of different types of starch.

Annealing treatment on the physicochemical properties and hydrolysis of maize, potato and pea starch were investigated in present study. Results indicated that annealing treatment did not change the morphology of the starch. However, the relative crystallinity of maize and potato starch showed a peak trend as the annealing time extended, while pea starch showed a lower relative crystallinity. Besides, all the annealed starch showed a decrease in peak viscosity and an increase in pasting time. Little difference in the rapidly digestive starch (RDS) and resistant starch (RS) contents of annealed maize starch and pea starch were observed after annealing, while annealed potato starch (72 h) showed an increased RS content (23.37 ± 5.36 %) and a decreased RDS content (52.60 ± 6.14 %), respectively. The obtained results may provide a better understanding of the physicochemical properties and enzymatic hydrolysis of annealed starch with different semi crystalline type.

Multi-scale structure characterization and in vivo digestion of parboiled rice.

To investigate the multi-scale structural changes and digestibility of parboiled rice, the side chain distribution, helical structure, short/long-range ordered structure, and lamellar structure were systematically characterized and an in vivo postprandial blood glucose test was applied. The results indicate that parboiling has little effect on the side chain distribution, double helix content and helical structure order of parboiled rice. The crystal type of rice starch changed from type A to A + V or B + V after parboiling and the relative crystallinity decreased from 30.45 % to a minimum of 6.87 %. The in vivo study also indicated that parboiling significantly reduces the glycaemic index of rice to medium level. Our work is the first to focus on the parboiling conditions, multi-scale structural changes and in vivo digestibility of parboiled rice, which might provide guidance for the design of less digestible parboiled rice in the future.

Efficient Retention and Complexation of Exogenous Ferulic Acid in Starch: Could Controllable Bioextrusion Be the Answer?

The starch-phenolics complexes are widely fabricated as functional foods but with low phenolics retention limited by traditional liquid reaction and washing systems. In this study, ferulic acid (FA, 5%) was exogenously used in the crystalline form, and it reacted with starch in a high-solid extrusion environment, which was simultaneously controlled by thermostable α-amylase (0-252 U/g). Moderate enzymolysis (21 or 63 U/g) decreased the degree of the starch double helix and significantly increased the FA retention rate (>80%) with good melting and distribution. Although there were no significantly strong chemical bonds (with only 0.17-2.39% FA bound to starch hydrolysate), the noncovalent interactions, mainly hydrogen bonds, van der Waals forces, and electrostatic interactions, were determined by 1H NMR and molecular dynamics simulation analyses. The phased release of total FA (>50% in the stomach and ∼100% in the intestines) from bioextrudate under in vitro digestion conditions was promoted, which gives a perspective for handing large loads of FA and other phenolics based on starch carrier.

Effects of hawthorn addition on the physicochemical properties and hydrolysis of corn starch.

Hawthorn powder were mixed with corn starch and heated in water to make corn starch-hawthorn mixtures (CS-Haw) and then the physicochemical properties and hydrolysis characteristics of the mixtures were measured. Results showed that the addition of hawthorn powder decreased the viscosity of corn starch, and prolonged the pasting temperature, while the microstructure analysis indicated that hawthorn particles aggregated on the surfaces of starch granules, reducing the chance of starch contacting with water, then delayed the starch gelatinization. The presence of hawthorn powder also reduced the G' value to varying degrees and the loss tangent of CS-Haw was significantly higher than that of corn starch. The addition of hawthorn powder in large amounts also increased the rapidly digestible starch, while decrease the slowly digestible starch and resistant starch. The present research will provide basic theoretical support for the application of hawthorn in healthy starch food processing.

Application of Curcumin Emulsion Carrier from Ultrasonic-Assisted Prepared Octenyl Succinic Anhydride Rice Starch.

The emulsification of ultrasonic-assisted prepared octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) rice starch on curcumin was investigated in the present study. The results indicated that the encapsulation efficiency of curcumin in emulsions stabilized by OSA-ultrasonic treatment rice starch was improved, from 81.65 ± 0.14% to 89.03 ± 0.09%. During the in vitro oral digestion, the particle size and Zeta potential of the curcumin emulsion did not change significantly (p > 0.05). During the in vitro digestive stage of the stomach and small intestine, the particle size of the curcumin emulsion continued to increase, and the absolute potential continued to decrease. Our work showed that OSA-pre-treatment ultrasonic rice starch could improve curcumin bioavailability by increasing the encapsulation efficiency with stronger stability to avoid the attack of enzymes and high intensity ion, providing a way to develop new emulsion-based delivery systems for bioactive lipophilic compounds using OSA starch.

Proanthocyanidins from Chinese berry leaves modified the physicochemical properties and digestive characteristic of rice starch.

Proanthocyanidins extracted from Chinese berry leaves (CBLPs) were heated with rice starch in aqueous solution to prepare polyphenols-starch complexes. The physicochemical properties of the complexes were characterized with XRD, DSC, RVA and FT-IR and starch constituents were also analyzed with an enzyme method. Results indicated that the addition of CBLPs destroyed the long ordered structure of rice starch rather than the short ordered structure, since the crystallinity decreased from 21.96% to 18.90% and the ratio of 1047 cm-1/1022 cm-1 showed little difference, consistent with the lower ΔH of complexes with higher CBLPs content. Additionally, the CBLPs-rice starch complexes showed a significantly lower content of rapidly digested starch (RDS, 45.64 ± 3.25%) than that of the native rice starch (67.76 ± 2.15%). These results indicated that CBLPs complexes with rice starch might be a novel way to prepare functional starch with slower digestion.

Effect of Potato Pulp Pectic Polysaccharide on the Stability of Acidified Milk Drinks.

In order to broaden the application of potato pulp pectic polysaccharide (PPP) in stabilizing acidified milk drinks (AMDs) and investigate the stabilizing effect and physical properties of AMDs prepared with PPP, a comparative study was made among PPP, commercial high methoxyl pectin (HMP) and low methoxyl pectin (LMP). The zeta potential, rheology, particle size and serum separation of AMDs were evaluated after preparing with PPP, HMP and LMP, respectively. Results indicated that PPP led to lower serum separation than LMP (14.65% for AMDs prepared with 0.5% PPP compared to 25.05% for AMDs prepared with 0.5% LMP), but still higher than HMP (9.09% for AMDs prepared with 0.5% HMP). However, narrower particle size distribution and lower viscosity of AMDs was achieved by PPP than by LMP and HMP. PPP can electrostatically adsorb on the surface of casein and its abundant neutral sugar side chains would provide steric hindrance to prevent casein flocculation in AMDs. Our results might provide some new ideas for the application of PPP in improving the stability of AMDs.

Inhibition mechanism of ferulic acid against α-amylase and α-glucosidase.

The inhibitory mechanisms of ferulic acid against α-amylase and α-glucosidase were investigated by enzyme kinetic analysis, circular dichroism (CD), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, fluorescence quenching and molecular docking. Results indicated that ferulic acid strongly inhibited α-amylase (IC50: 0.622 mg ml-1) and α-glucosidase (IC50: 0.866 mg ml-1) by mixed and non-competitive mechanisms, respectively. CD spectra and fluorescence intensity measurements confirmed that the secondary structure of α-amylase and α-glucosidase were changed and the microenvironments of certain amino acid residues were modulated by the binding of ferulic acid. FT-IR spectra indicated that the interaction between ferulic acid and α-amylase/α-glucosidase mainly involved in non-covalent bonds. Molecular docking further demonstrated that the interaction forces between ferulic acid and α-amylase/α-glucosidase were hydrogen bonds, with the binding energy of -5.30 to -5.10 and -5.70 kcal mol-1, respectively. This study might provide a theoretical basis for the designing of novel functional foods with ferulic acid.

Controlled ultrasound treatments modify the morphology and physical properties of rice starch rather than the fine structure.

To further investigate how controlled ultrasound treatments affect the morphology, physical property and fine structure of rice starch granules, the starch suspended in water was treated with different ultrasonic power levels (150, 300, 450 and 600 W) at 25 °C for 20 min. XRD, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy were performed to characterise the long-range and short-range ordered structure of starch granules. Results indicated that ultrasound slightly destroyed the amorphous region of starch granules, while the A-type crystalline pattern remained unchanged. The result of chain length distributions showed that the fine structure of rice starch was not significantly changed by ultrasound treatment. SEM and particle size distribution demonstrated that ultrasound induced fissures and pores on the granule surface and elevated the homogeneity of granules, with minimum effect on the granule size. In addition, the thermal and pasting properties of rice starch were also measured by DSC and RVA. Results showed that after ultrasound treatments, the peak and breakdown viscosity increased, while the peak time, pasting temperature and gelatinisation enthalpy decreased. Overall, controlled ultrasound treatments dominantly modified the morphology and physical property of rice starch rather than the fine structure, providing additional information for the application of ultrasound on starch modification.