Synthesis, characterisation and in vitro digestibility of carboxymethyl potato starch rapidly prepared with microwave-assistance

Carboxymethyl potato starch was synthesised with the aid of microwave. Optimal degree of substitution (DS) of 0.32 was obtained at 45 degrees C in 25 min using aqueous ethanol media with water/solvent of 0.15 at 200 W. The molar ratio of sodium hydroxide and monochloroacetic acid to anhydroglucose unit for optimal DS were 2.5 and 1.0, respectively. FT-IR spectrometry revealed the carboxymethyl starch to show new bands at nu = 1614 cm(-1) and = 1429 cm(-1). Wide angle X-ray diffractometry and DSC revealed a remarkable reduction in starch crystallinity after carboxymethylation, which was consistent with destroyed surface observed in SEM. The digestibility of carboxymethyl starch (CMS) was lower than that of native starch. With similar DS, there was no difference in digestibility of carboxymethyl starch prepared with and without microwave. As DS increased from 0.05 to 0.32, the amount of resistant starch in microwave-assisted carboxymethyl starch was elevated from 14.6% to 20.0%, which was much higher than that of native starch (10.8%). (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.