Optimised methodology for carboxymethylation of (1→3)‐β‐d‐glucan from Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and promotion of mechanical activation

With a view to utilise yeast (1→3)‐β‐d ‐glucan as biological response modifiers with better water solubility, carboxymethylation was carried out by a two‐step alkalisation and etherification with monochloroacetic acid. Four technological parameters of carboxymethylation were investigated by orthogonal experiments for obtaining the maximum degree of substitution (DS), apparent viscosity (η) and solubility of carboxymethyl derivatives. In view of the orthogonal analysis, the optimal technological parameters were reaction temperature 50 °C, total reaction time 5 h, 3 mL of 50% sodium hydroxide as the second alkali dosage and 15 mL of 4 m chloroacetic acid. In addition, it was found that ball milling pretreatment for original (1→3)‐β‐d ‐glucan can be an advantage for carboxymethylation. By contrast, DS, η and solubility of carboxymethyl product increased 24%, 6% and 22%, respectively, suggesting the effect of ball milling pretreatment could not be neglected on improvement of DS, η and solubility for carboxymethyl products.