Inhibitory effects of fucan sulfates on enzymatic hydrolysis of starch

The effect of fucoidan and its oversulfated derivative on starch digestibility was investigated by determining the enzymatic reaction kinetics and their inhibitory activity against α-amylase and amyloglucosidase. After the α-amylase hydrolysis, the produced reducing sugars of the buckwheat starch (BW, 2.0–3.0 g/100 mL) and those of the blends of BW with low levels of native fucoidan (NF, 0.5–1.0 g/100 mL) and oversulfated fucoidan (OSF, 0.5–1.0 g/100 mL) were in the range of 440–450 mg/g starch. The addition of NF and OSF did not significantly influence the α-amylolysis. The hydrolysis of the starch and the fucoidan blends using both α-amylase and amyloglucosidase was decreased to 12% by the addition of 1.0 g/100 mL OSF, while only 5% reduction of the starch hydrolysis by 1.0 g/100 mL NF. The inhibitory activity of NF on amyloglucosidase was negligible, but that of OSF on amyloglucosidase was considerable up to 21.2% at the concentration of 10 mg/mL with non-competitive inhibition mechanism. It was suggested that the substantial reduction of starch hydrolysis by the addition of OSF may be caused by a direct inhibition of amyloglucosidase activity, implying a possible application of OSF as an enzyme inhibitor.