Effect of Debranching and Differential Ethanol Precipitation on the Formation and Fermentation Properties of Maize Starch-Lipid Complexes.

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 II b complexes with lauric acid (LA), whereas the fraction with DP 37∼75 formed predominantly type I a complexes. The glucan faction with DP 8∼32 did not form V-complexes with LA. In vitro fermentation of the type II b 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 II b crystallite resulted in a greater production of butyrate.