Impacts of acid-methanol treatment and annealing on the enzymatic resistance of corn starches

Normal corn, Hylon V and Hylon VII starches were acid-methanol-treated at 25 °C for 1–30 days in methanol containing 0.36% HCl, and then annealing at 50 °C for 72 h in excess water. The rapid digestible starch (RDS), slow digestible starch (SDS) and resistant starch (RS) contents of starch before and after treatments were determined. The molecular structure, thermal properties, double helix content and relative crystallinity of starch were observed for elucidating the impacts of acid-methanol treatment and annealing, as well as the molecular structure, on the enzymatic resistance of starch. Results showed that the weight-average degree of polymerization of acid-methanol-treated corn starches ranged from 884 × 103 to 404, 778 × 103 to 299 and 337 × 103 to 250 anhydrous glucose units for normal corn, Hylon V and Hylon VII starches, respectively. Annealing increased the RS content of starch, and the increment of RS increased with decreasing molecular size of starch. Furthermore, the change in RS content after treatments depended on the content and weight-average chain length of amylose fraction of starch. The RS content of starch after treatments increased from 19.2 to 56.2%, 69.9 to 86.1%, and 73.1 to 89.1% for normal corn, Hylon V and Hylon VII starches, respectively. The gelatinization peak temperature and double helix content of starch increased after acid-methanol treatment or annealing. Results demonstrate that the degradation of starch, causing by acid-methanol treatment, enhances the mobility and realignment of starch chains in molecules during treatments and further increases the enzymatic resistance of starch granules.