Nutritional Property of Endosperm Starches from Maize Mutants: A Parabolic Relationship between Slowly Digestible Starch and Amylopectin Fine Structure

Abstract

The relationship between the slow digestion property of cooked maize starch and its molecular fine structure was investigated. Results of the in vitro Englyst assay showed a range of rapidly digestible starch (RDS) (70.1-98.9%), slowly digestible starch (SDS) (0.2-20.3%), and resistant starch (RS) (0.0-13.7%) among the tested maize mutant flour samples. Further analysis showed that amylose content was significantly correlated ( R = 0.763, P < 0.001) with RS amount but not with that of SDS, indicating that amylopectin is the starch molecule associated with SDS. Total starch debranching analysis revealed a parabolic relationship between SDS content and the weight ratio of amylopectin short chains (DP < 13, named SF) to long chains (DP >/= 13, named LF), which means amylopectin with a higher amount of either short chains or long chains can produce relatively high amounts of SDS. Furthermore, debranching analysis of the SDS materials from samples with the highest and lowest weight ratios of SF/LF (both had a high amount SDS) showed significantly different profiles, indicating there is not a uniform molecular structure for SDS. Thus, genetic mutants of maize samples have a good potential to provide raw starch materials of high nutritional quality. An additional finding showed that a simple and comparably high-throughput technique of Rapid Visco-Analyzer (RVA) can be used to screen genetic mutants on the basis of their RVA profiles.

Effect of Pyrodextrinization, Crosslinking and Heat- Moisture Treatment on In vitro Formation and Digestibility of Resistant Starch from African Locust Bean (<i>Parkia biglobosa</i>)

“…Our in vitro starch digestibility results corroborate those of Zhang et al [16] in waxy maize, wheat, rice and maize starches. The RDS, SDS and RS levels of the parkia starches cannot be compared with those reported for other legume starches, due to differences in methods used and different duration of hydrolysis that were used for determination of RDS, SDS and RS levels.…”

Changes in physicochemical properties and in vitro starch digestion of native and extruded maize flours subjected to branching enzyme and maltogenic α-amylase treatment

“…This trend would only be significant in extruded matrices compared with the native ones, being the later less prone to mild hydrothermal reorganizations as a consequence of their packed morphology. It is important to point out that amylose is the main starch molecule related to RS [35]. Martínez et al [12] reported an increase in the amylose content during the branching enzyme treatments.…”

“…However, Han et al [34] indicated that short chains of amylopectin and amylose were preferentially digested (rapidly), while DP 121 chains were resistant to amylase hydrolysis, followed by those of DP 46. Furthermore, Zhang et al [35,36] found that maize starches with either longer or shorter branches showed slower digestion properties based on: 1) the potential of long branches to form crystallites and, 2) the presence of a highly branched amorphous lamella, entailing a higher content in short chains, that halt the rearrangement of the crystalline double helices in amylopectin. In this way, Bertoft et al [37] recently hypothesized that even those nuances in the structural architecture can have a pronounced effect on the properties of starch.…”

Characterization Methods for Starch-Based Materials: State of the Art and Perspectives

“…High amylose starches are correlated with a type of resistant starch (RS). [62] RS is not digested in the small intestine and instead reaches the large intestine, where it is fermented to produce short-chain fatty acids, which have a role in maintaining bowel health and can assist in the prevention and treatment of colonic disease. [63,64] The starch gelatinization temperature (GT) is an important trait affecting the rate of the processes required to drive the transition from flour to gel (e.g.…”