Effects of microwave treatments and retrogradation on molecular crystalline structure and in vitro digestibility of debranched mung-bean starches

The objective of this study was to investigate morphology, molecular crystalline structure, and digestibility of debranched mung bean starches with or without microwave treatment and retrogradation at different temperature. The mung bean starch was firstly debranched with pullulanase, and then the debranched starch containing 20% moisture content was treated by microwave irradiation for 3 min with or without further retrograded at +25, +4, or -18 degrees C for 24 h. All treated starches exhibited the B +V-type crystalline polymorph as determined by the XRD and the 13CNMR. The FT-IR results showed that the debranched starches had lower degree of order but higher degree of double helix than those of the native starch. The microwave treatment or further recrystallization of the debranched starch for more 24 h significantly improved crystalline structure of starch granules with higher degree of relative crystallinity, degree of order, and degree of double helices. The resistant starch content of the treated starch was in a range of 39.7-52.8%, significantly higher than that of the native starch (15.6%). As a result, the microwave-assisted debranched starch with further crystallization for 24 h was found to have highly ordered structure of granules, which highly resisted to the enzyme digestion.

Automated summary

The study investigated morphology, molecular crystalline structure, and digestibility of debranched mung bean starches with or without microwave treatment and retrogradation at different temperatures. The results showed that microwave treatment and further crystallization significantly improved the crystalline structure of starch granules, leading to higher resistant starch content and enhanced resistance to enzyme digestion.