Effect of Debranching and Differential Ethanol Precipitation on the Formation and Fermentation Properties of Maize Starch–Lipid Complexes
Ziqing Yan, Miaomiao Zhang, Mengjie Xu, Jinglin Yu, Les Copeland, Yongchun Huang, Shujun Wang
Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of starch debranching followed by differential ethanol precipitation on the formation and in vitro fermentation of starch–lipid complexes. Three groups of linear glucan chains, with a degree of polymerization (DP) of 383∼2950, 37∼75, and 3∼8, were obtained after debranched maize starch (DMS) was fractionated by differential ethanol precipitation. The glucan fraction with DP 383∼2950 formed only type IIb complexes with lauric acid (LA), whereas the fraction with DP 37∼75 formed predominantly type Ia complexes. The glucan faction with DP 8∼32 did not form V-complexes with LA. In vitro fermentation of the type IIb complexes with human fecal samples promoted the proliferation of butyrate-producing bacteria Megamonas, Blautia, and Megasphaera and resulted in a larger amount of butyrate and total short-chain fatty acids being produced than in similar fermentations of the maize starch-LA complex, DMS-LA complex, and fructo-oligosaccharides. This study showed that starch–lipid complexes with a more stable type IIb crystallite resulted in a greater production of butyrate.