Fractionation of debranched starch with different molecular weights via edible alcohol precipitation.

Debranched starch (DBS) has attracted immense interest from the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries as a versatile ingredient. Herein, we firstly developed a simple fractionation method using an edible alcohol solution to separate DBS of different degrees of polymerization (DP). These DBSs were separated from debranched waxy corn starch on the basis of their differential solubility in aqueous/ethanol solutions of different volumetric ratios (1:1.5 and 1:3). Four DBS products were obtained with DP values of 23.53, 20.04, 9.14, and 6.75. The DBS (DP 23.53) exhibited higher iodine staining index values compared to DBSs of lower DPs. The thermograms of DBSs (DP 9.14 and DP 6.75) displayed no apparent peak, indicating their amorphous nature. Compared to freeze-drying, oven-dried DBS (DP 23.53) exhibited a higher relative crystallinity (72.0%). Therefore, the ethanol precipitation method developed here serves as a simple, scalable, and green approach for preparing DBS fractions of different molecular weights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]