Starch availability in vitro and in vivo after flaking, steam-cooking and popping of wheat

Abstract

The availability for digestion of starch in vitro after flaking, steam cooking and popping of whole grain wheat was studied and compared with that of raw and boiled wheat. Some physical and morphological characteristics were also investigated and correlated with starch availability for amylolysis. In an in vitro assay using hog pancreatic α-amylase after preincubation with pepsin, starch in flaked wheat was less available than that in boiled, popped and steam-cooked wheat. The starch in raw wheat was digested only slightly. When pepsin was omitted, the availability to α-amylase of starch in raw and boiled wheat decreased substantially, indicating that a large fraction of the starch was encapsulated in a protein matrix. The starch in flaked wheat elicited lower plasma glucose and plasma insulin levels in rats in vivo than that in boiled wheat after a gastric load. With raw wheat, the plasma glucose peak was much delayed and of lower magnitude compared with that with the heat-treated samples. In order to obtain good agreement with the in vivo results, a pepsin step had to be included in the in vitro assay using α-amylase. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements indicated that starch in flaked wheat was not gelatinised completely and this fact probably accounted for the lower availability in flaked wheat compared with boiled, popped or steam-cooked wheat.