Controlled production of oligosaccharides from amylose by acid-hydrolysis under microwave treatment: Comparison with conventional heating

Controlled production of malto-oligosaccharides from pure amylose has been realised in a fast, cheap and easy way with good potentials for later scale up. Pure amylose (20 g L−1) was hydrolysed under dilute acidic conditions (0.45 M HCl, 90 °C) with two sorts of heating: microwave irradiation and conventional heating. The kinetics of oligosaccharide production were followed by high-performance anion exchange chromatography. Microwave treatment was shown to be more efficient. A similar range of oligosaccharides as with the conventional heating procedure was observed, but without any appearance of degradation compounds (brown products) and a 10 times faster production rate leading to very short production times (maximum 15 min).