Enzymatic Hydrolysis Characteristics of Five Medicinal Starches by Gravitational Field-Flow Fractionation / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the enzymatic hydrolysis characteristics of five medicinal starches, i.e.,waxy corn starch, potato starch, pea starch, wheat starch and common corn starch,using gravitational field flow fractionation (GrFFF) and other technologies. METHODS: Firstly, the enzymatic hydrolysis rates of the five medicinal starches were characterized by GrFFF, and the results of GrFFF were verified by determination of the reducing sugar.Secondly, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and particle size analyzer were used to characterize the changes of particle morphology and size distribution during amylase hydrolysis. RESULTS: The experiments showed that the enzymatic hydrolysis rates of the five medicinal starches were successively decreased. The former two as well as the latter three reached the maximum enzymatic rate at 6-12 h and 12-24 h, respectively. As the enzymatic hydrolysis time increased, the particle size distribution range became wider and the average size increased. The results of reducing sugar quantitation, SEM and particle size analysis were almost identical to those of GrFFF. CONCLUSION: This study proves that GrFFF is an effective analytical technology to characterize the enzymatic hydrolysis of medicinal starch, which expands the application range of GrFFF and provides useful reference for the application of starch in medicine and food sciences.