Acetylated rice starch nanocrystals improved the physical, mechanical, and structural properties of native rice starch based films.

Rice starch nanocrystals (SNC) and acetylated rice starch nanocrystals (ASNC) with three different substitution degrees (DS) for 0.22 (ASNCa), 0.56 (ASNCb), and 0.83 (ASNCc), respectively, were synthesized. Starch nanocrystals (SNC, ASNCa, ASNCb and ASNCc) with varying concentrations (0-25 %) were used in the production of composite rice starch-based films plasticized with glycerol using the solvent casting technique. Films were compared concerning their morphology, moisture content and solubility, transmittance, tensile strength, elongation at break. The SNC and ASNC content and acetylated DS had a significant effect (p ≤ 0.05) on all the properties investigated when compared to the control film. The addition of ASNC resulted in less hydrophilic films and UV light barrier properties, and the addition of SNC and ASNC increased the rigidity of starch film. There was an increase of 156.7 % in tensile strength for 10 % ASNCc composite films and a reduction of 68.1 % in water vapor permeability for 20 % ASNCc composite films. The rice starch/ASNCb nanocomposite films with the addition of 5 % and 10 % ASNCb exhibited a compact, smooth, and flat surface structure. Therefore, these results showed that ASNC significantly improved the mechanical properties, surface morphology and thermal stability of the films.

Effects of Reheating Methods on Rheological and Textural Characteristics of Rice Starch with Different Gelatinization Degrees.

Pregelatinized starch (PGS) is often used to improve the processing quality of foodstuffs, but little attention has been paid to the effects of different reheating methods and degree of starch gelatinization (DSG) on their rheological and textural properties. In this study, pregelatinized rice starches (RS) with gelatinization degrees ranging from 58% to 100% were prepared via different Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) heating procedures and reheated in various methods, including high-power microwave (HM), low-power microwave (LM), and water bath. The rheological behavior and textural properties were explored, and the results demonstrated that the consistency, gel strength, hardness, and springiness of PGS in all tested samples decreased significantly after reheating. The storage modulus (G') of PGS increased dramatically while the thermal stability decreased. Interestingly, the reheating methods possessed various effects on the starch of different DSG.

Preparation of fluorescent nanoparticles based on broken-rice starch for live-cell imaging.

Native broken-rice starch was used to create starch nanoparticles (StNPs) with particle sizes ranging from 100 nm to 800 nm. The fluorescent isothiocyanate poly-l-lysine StNPs (FITC-PLL-StNPs) were created in two steps. First, the StNPs were electrostatically modified by poly-l-lysine (PLL) molecules rich in amino acids. Second, fluorescein isothiocyanate reacted with some amino groups on PLL molecules (FITC). Fluorescence spectrophotometry was used to determine the degree of substitution (DS) and fluorescent properties of fluorescent starches. The study found that FITC-PLL-StNP-200 has higher fluorescence stability, more phagocytic cells, and a better and clearer fluorescence detecting effect than FITC-PLL-St, FITC-PLL-StNP-100, FITC-PLL-StNP-400, and FITC-PLL-StNP-800. The biological evaluation results showed that FITC-PLL-StNP-200 did not affect the viability of HeLa cells at the lysosome labeling concentration. These findings suggest that FITC-PLL-StNP-200 has strong and stable fluorescence, indicating that FITC-PLL-StNP-200 can be used as a fluorescent probe and lysosome marker in a variety of applications, particularly in biomedicine.

Preparation and characterization of broken-rice starch nanoparticles with different sizes.

Broken-rice starch nanoparticles with different mean particle diameters for 100, 200, 400 and 800 nm were prepared by nanoprecipitation, alkali freezing, cross-linking and H2SO4 hydrolysis methods respectively, and their structural, morphological and physicochemical properties were systematically characterized. The results showed that broken-rice starch nanoparticles had higher water absorption rate, and the maximum water absorption rate was obtained from the 100 nm starch granules being 91.53%, which means an increase about 2.07-fold in water absorption rate as compared with native rice starch. The stability of native rice starch is the worst, but the viscosity characteristic value is always higher than that of starch nanoparticles in the whole gelatinization process. The FT-IR spectrum showed that only starch nanoparticles prepared by cross-linking method showed the characteristic peak of secondary amide structure at 1714 cm-1, but the structure of was basically the same as native starch. The X-ray diffraction pattern revealed that there were obvious characteristic diffraction peaks near 2θ for 15°, 17°, 19° and 23° for the 800 nm starch nanoparticles and native rice starch, while the characteristic diffraction peaks of other starch nanoparticles disappeared in varying degrees due to the changed crystal structure.

Preparation and properties of hydrophobic films based on acetylated broken-rice starch nanocrystals for slow protein delivery.

Native and acetylated broken-rice starches (nanocrystals) with different degrees of substitution (DS) and their corresponding films were individually prepared, and the drug release profiles, weight loss, solubility and dispersion and surface morphology were comparatively studied. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as a model drug. Acetylated native starch (ANS) DS 2.58, acetylated starch nanocrystals (ASN) DS 0.98, ASN DS 1.86, and ASN DS 2.72 were observed to be very soluble in chloroform. BSA was released rapidly from the native rice starch (NS) and ANS DS 2.58 films. ASN with high DS significantly slowed down the release of BSA from films, the percentages of BSA released from film ASN DS 2.72 only reached to 13% after 3.5 weeks release, and the release data followed Korsmeyer-Peppas equation. Further studies reveal that the particle size of ASN DS 2.72 was smallest, and the weight loss of ASN DS 2.72 film was lowest. The results demonstrate that acetylation and nanometer particle form of rice starch film can effectively retard protein drug release, and the prepared films based on ASN with high DS from broken rice may be suitable for the controlled protein delivery.

Acetylated starch nanocrystals: Preparation and antitumor drug delivery study.

In this study, we developed a new nanoparticulate system for acetylated starch nanocrystals (ASN) using broken rice. ASN with different degrees of substitution (DS) of 0.04, 0.08 and 0.14 were prepared using acetic anhydride as acetylating agent through reaction with starch nanocrystals (SN). The resulting ASN were investigated for the capability to load and release doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), and the antitumor activities of DOX-loaded SN and DOX-loaded ASN were evaluated as potential drug delivery systems for cancer therapy. Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of nanocrystals and the DOX-loaded nanocrystals were investigated using fluorescence microscopy and a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) (MTT) assay. Compared with acetylated starches (AS) and native starches (NS), ASN with DS 0.14 loaded up to 6.07% of DOX with a higher loading efficiency of 91.1% and had steadier drug-release rates. Toxicity analysis using the rat hepatocytes model suggested that ASN was biocompatible and could be used for drug delivery. Furthermore, ASN were taken up by cancer cells in vitro and significantly enhanced the cytotoxicity of DOX against HeLa human cervical carcinoma cells. The IC50 value of DOX-loaded ASN-DS 0.14 was 3.8µg/mL for 24h of treatment, which was significantly lower than that of free DOX (21µg/mL). These results indicate that the prepared ASN using broken rice is a promising vehicle for the controlled delivery of DOX for cancer therapy.

A comparative study of the characteristics of cross-linked, oxidized and dual-modified rice starches.

Rice starch was cross-linked with epichlorohydrin (0.3%, w/w, on a dry starch basis) and oxidized with sodium hypochlorite (2.5% w/w), respectively. Two dual-modified rice starch samples (oxidized cross-linked rice starch and cross-linked oxidized rice starch) were obtained by the oxidation of cross-linked rice starch and the cross-linking of oxidized rice starch at the same level of reagents. The physicochemical properties of native rice starch, cross-linked rice starch and oxidized rice starch were also studied parallel with those of the two dual-modified rice starch samples using rapid visco analysis (RVA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic rheometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was found that the levels of cross-linking and oxidation used in this study did not cause any significant changes in the morphology of rice starch granules. Cross-linked oxidized starch showed lower swelling power (SP) and solubility, and higher paste clarity in comparison with native starch. Cross-linked oxidized rice starch also had the lowest tendency of retrogradation and highest ability to resistant to shear compared with native, cross-linked, oxidized and oxidized cross-linked rice starches. These results suggest that the undesirable properties in native, cross-linked and oxidized rice starch samples could be overcome through dual-modification.

Effect of cross-linking and enzymatic hydrolysis composite modification on the properties of rice starches.

Native rice starch lacks the versatility necessary to function adequately under rigorous industrial processing, so modified starches are needed to meet the functional properties required in food products. This work investigated the impact of enzymatic hydrolysis and cross-linking composite modification on the properties of rice starches. Rice starch was cross-linked with epichlorohydrin (EPI) with different concentrations (0.5%, 0.7%, 0.9% w/w, on a dry starch basis), affording cross-linked rice starches with the three different levels of cross-linking that were named R1, R2, and R3, respectively. The cross-linked rice starches were hydrolyzed by α-amylase and native, hydrolyzed, and hydrolyzed cross-linked rice starches were comparatively studied. It was found that hydrolyzed cross-linked rice starches showed a lower the degree of amylase hydrolysis compared with hydrolyzed rice starch. The higher the degree of cross-linking, the higher the capacity to resist enzyme hydrolysis. Hydrolyzed cross-linked rice starches further increased the adsorptive capacities of starches for liquids and decreased the trend of retrogradation, and it also strengthened the capacity to resist shear compared to native and hydrolyzed rice starches.

Evaluation of black tea polyphenol extract against the retrogradation of starches from various plant sources.

The effects of black tea polyphenol extract (BTPE) on the retrogradation of starches from different plant sources were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). DSC analysis shows that the gelatinization temperature of maize starch and starches from different rice varieties increased with increasing BTPE level. After storage at 4 °C, BTPE at a concentration of 15% markedly retarded the retrogradation of maize starch and starches from different rice varieties. Native maize starch and starches from different rice varieties showed typical A-type X-ray diffraction patterns, while native potato starch showed a typical B-type X-ray diffraction pattern. Adding BTPE significantly affected the crystalline region and intensities of X-ray diffraction peaks of maize and rice starch granules. It is concluded that adding BTPE markedly inhibits the retrogradation of maize starch and starches from different rice varieties, but has no significant influence on the gelatinization and retrogradation characteristics of potato starch.

The interaction between tea polyphenols and rice starch during gelatinization.

The interaction between tea polyphenols (TPLs) and rice starch (RS) during gelatinization has been studied. In the RVA analysis, TPLs-fortified RS exhibited no clearly defined peak viscosity and hot paste viscosity. After excluding other factors, irregular viscosity changes were attributed to the strong interactions between RS and TPLs during pasting/gelatinization. Subsequently, the coupling constants of samples A (the gelatinized sample of the blend of 16% TPLs and RS) and B (the blend of 16% TPLs and gelatinized RS sample) in (1)H-NMR measurements were found to be the difference. Sample A had two coupling constants, (26h)J(HH) = 82.08, 100.77 Hz and (6h)J(HH) = 35.57 Hz, whereas Sample B had one larger coupling constant, (9h)J(HH) = 140.24 Hz. This implied that these two samples differed in H-H interaction and interaction strength of sample A may be stronger than that of sample B. More important is, sample A had clearly broadened O-H stretching and frequency red-shifts of C-O-H bending as compared with sample B in quantitative FT-IR analysis. The overall results indicate that TPLs and RS can have hydrogen bonding interaction during gelatinization.

Stimulated production of triterpenoids of Ganoderma lucidum by an ether extract from the medicinal insect, Catharsius molossus, and identification of the key stimulating active components.

The medicinal fungus Ganoderma lucidum was inoculated into the media with and without supplementation of medicinal insect extracts to screen stimulators from Chinese medicinal insects for mycelial growth and triterpenoids production in submerged fermentation. The methanol and ether extracts of the tested insects had no significant stimulatory effect on the mycelial biomass production (P > 0.05), and those of H. remigator and Mylabris phalerata markedly inhibited the mycelial growth. However, the ether extract of Catharsius molossus at a concentration of 200 mg l(-1) led to a significant increase in triterpenoids concentration from 231.7 ± 9.77 to 313.7 ± 10.6 mg l(-1) (P < 0.01). Analysis of fermentation kinetics of G. lucidum suggests that glucose concentration in the extract of C. molossus-added group decreased more quickly as compared to the control group from day 2 to day 7 of fermentation process, while the triterpenoids biosynthesis was promoted at the same culture period. However, the culture pH profile was not affected by the addition of the extract. Chemical study of the extract show that cis-9,10-methylenehexadecanoic acid (9,10-MEA) and hexadecanoic acid (especially 9,10-MEA) were the key active compounds of the extract responsible for the stimulatory effect on the triterpenoids production.