Impact of structural changes due to heat-moisture treatment at different temperatures on the susceptibility of normal and waxy potato starches towards hydrolysis by porcine pancreatic alpha amylase

The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of structural changes within the amorphous and crystalline domains of normal potato (NP) and waxy potato (WP) starches subjected to heat-moisture treatment (HMT) at 80, 100, 120 and 130 °C for 16 h at a moisture content of 27% and to determine the impact of structural changes at each of the above temperatures on the susceptibility on hydrolysis by porcine pancreatic α-amylase (PPA). The results showed that structural changes due to HMT were influenced by differences in starch chain mobility at the different temperatures of HMT. Starch chain mobility in turn was influenced by the interplay between the extent to which B-type crystallites were transformed into A + B-type crystallites, kinetic energy imparted to starch chains and amylose content. The main type of structural changes influencing physicochemical properties at the different temperatures of HMT was starch chain interactions (at 80 and 100 °C), disruption of hydrogen bonds between amylose (AM)–amylopectin (AMP) and AMP–AMP chains (at 120 and 130 °C), disorganization of AMP chains near the vicinity of the hilum (at 100, 120 and 130 °C) and formation of interrupted helices (at 130 °C). The susceptibility of NP and WP starches towards α-amylase decreased at 80 °C, but increased in the range of 100 to 130 °C. This suggested that α-amylase hydrolysis of HMT starches was influenced by the interplay of: 1) amount of A-type crystallites, 2) starch chain interactions and 3) changes to double helical conformation. Differences in granule morphology in PPA hydrolyzed NP and WP starches were largely influenced by the higher granular swelling in the latter. NP and WP starches exhibited heterogeneity in degradation (NP > WP) in both their native and HMT states.

Research highlights
► Heat-moisture treatment (HMT) at 80 and 100 °C increased starch chain interactions.
► HMT at 120 and 130 °C disrupted hydrogen bonds between starch chains.
► α-Amylolysis decreased on HMT at 80 °C.
► α-Amylolysis increased on HMT in the temperature range 100–130 °C.