Abstract
Intake of butyrylated starches may increase colonic butyrate supply, which can be of public health and clinical benefit by maintaining colonic health. The objective was to investigate if an organocatalytic method with tartaric acid as a catalyst could be applied to produce butyrylated products from different starch sources and to characterize their chemical structure and fermentation capability by using solid-state 13C MAS NMR (magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy and an in vitro fermentation model, respectively. Low-amylose and high-amylose potato starch (LAPS and HAPS) and low-amylose and high-amylose maize starch (LAMS and HAMS) were subjected to organocatalytic butyrylation. This resulted in products with an increasing degree of substitution (DS) measured by heterogenous saponification and back titration with the HCl (chemical method) depending on reaction time. NMR analysis, however, showed that the major part of the acylation was induced by tartarate (75–89%) and only a minor part (11–25%) by butyrate. Generally, the chemical method overestimated the DS by 38% to 91% compared with the DS determination by NMR. Increasing the DS appeared to lower the in vitro fermentation capability of starches independent of the starch source and, therefore, do not seem to present a feasible method to deliver more butyrate to the colon than lower DS products.
Highlights
The short chain fatty acids (SCFA) acetate, propionate, and butyrate produced by microbial fermentation of dietary fiber (DF) in the large intestine are believed to play a beneficial role in gut health [1]
The content of amylose was 2–2.6 times higher in the high‐amylose maize starch (HAMS) and high‐amylose potato starch (HAPS) compared to the low-amylose starches with HAMS having the largest proportion of amylose (79.5% of dry matter, Table 1)
The content of amylose in the HAMS and HAPS determined by the Megazyme kit corresponded well with the manufacturers declared content
Summary
The short chain fatty acids (SCFA) acetate, propionate, and butyrate produced by microbial fermentation of dietary fiber (DF) in the large intestine are believed to play a beneficial role in gut health [1]. Apart from being the preferred energy source for colonic epithelial cells [2] and a major regulator of cell proliferation and differentiation [3], butyrate has been shown to possess anti-carcinogenic [4], anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant [5] effects in in vitro and animal studies and overall to enhance the intestinal barrier function and mucosal immunity [6]. Many of these effects have been related to its action as a histone deacetylase inhibitor [7]. One way to achieve this is to increase the consumption of foods high in resistant starch (RS) because RS fermentation generally favors butyrate production in the large intestine [8,9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call