Structural characterizations and digestibility of debranched high-amylose maize starch complexed with lauric acid

Structural characterizations and digestibility of debranched high-amylose maize starch complexed with lauric acid (LA) were studied. The cooked starch was debranched by using pullulanase and then complexed. Light microscopy showed that the lipids complexed starches had irregularly-shaped particles with strong birefringence. Gel-permeation chromatograms revealed that amylopectin degraded to smaller molecules during increasing debranching time, and the debranch reaction was completed at 12 h. Debranching pretreatment and prolonged debranching time (from 2 h to 24 h) could improve the formation of starch lipids complex. X-ray diffraction pattern of the amylose–lipid complexes changed from V-type to a mixture of B- and V-type polymorphs and relative crystallinity increased as the debranching time increased from 0 to 24 h. In DSC thermograms, complexes from debranched starch displayed three separated endotherms: the melting of the free lauric acid, starch–lipid complexes and retrograded amylose, respectively. The melting temperature and enthalpy changes of starch–lipid complex were gradually enhanced with the increasing of debranching time. However, no significant enthalpy changes were observed from retrograded amylose during the starch–lipid complex formation. Rapidly digestible starch (RDS) content decreased and resistant starch (RS) content increased with the increasing of debranching time, while the highest slowly digestible starch (SDS) content was founded at less debranching time of 2 h. The crystalline structures with dense aggregation of helices from amylose-LA complex and retrograded amylose could be RS, while SDS mostly consisted of imperfect packing of helices between amylopectin residue and amylose or LA.