Starch degradation products

G Dongowski, RHH Neubert, M Platzer, M Schwarz, B Schnorrenberger, H Anger. Interactions between food components and drugs. Part 6. Influence of starch degradation products on propranolol transport. Pharmazie 53 871-875, 1998. 

Beer making or brewing involves the use of germinated barley (malt), hops, yeast and water. In addition to malt from barley, other starch- and/or sugar-containing raw materials have a role, e. g., other kinds of malt such as wheat, unmalted cereals called adjuncts (barley, wheat, com, rice), starch flour, starch degradation products and fermentable sugars. The use of additional raw materials may necessitate in part the use of microbial enzyme preparations. 

Nitsch, E. 13 June 1995. Process for the production of starch degradation products with a narrow moleculm weight distribution. U.S. patent 5,424,302. 

Of particular importance for modifications of starch are the enzyme degradation products such as glucose symps, cyclodextrins, maltodextrins, and high fmctose com symps (HFCS). Production of such hydrolysis products requites use of selected starch-degrading enzymes such as a-amylase,... 

The products formed after heating dried P-carotene at 180°C for 2 hr in a sealed ampoule (SI) with air circulation (S2) stirring with starch and water (S3) and during extrusion process (S4) were isolated. - In all systems, 5,6-epoxy-P-carotene (trans and two cis isomers), 5,8-epoxy-P-carotene (trans and four cis isomers), and 5,6,5,6-diepoxy-P-carotene were identified, along with 5,6,5,8-diepoxy-P-carotene in systems S3 and S4. Later on, along with the epoxides previously found, 5 P-apocarotenals with 20 to 30 carbons, P-caroten-4-one, and 6 different P-carotene cis isomers were isolated in systems S3 and S4, whereas lower numbers of degradation products were found in the other systems. ... 

Implementation The GC-MS of the sample headspace finds no perfume compounds. The cream is found to be greater than 80-wt% organic matter. Pyrolysis-GC-MS identified significant levels of glucose polymers, which were confirmed by FTIR to be either cellulose or starch. The iodine test revealed that the glucose polymer was starch. Further GC-MS analysis did not find cholesterol, but did find trace levels of a cholesterol degradation product. 

It was Brown and Morris (15) in 1888 who employed Raoult s method. They reported a value of 30,000 for the molecular weight of amylodextrin, a degradation product of the hydrolysis of starch. Subsequently Lintner and Dull (16) also using cryoscopy reexamined amylodextrin, and reported the molecular weight as 17,500. In a third paper, Rodewald and Kattein (17) in 1900, measured the molecular weight of starch by osmotic pressure experiments carried out on aqueous solutions of starch iodide. They obtained somewhat higher molecular weights, 36,700 and 39,700. 

At this point little is known about the interrelationships between composition, structure, starch-degradation and physical disintegration properties of starch-plastic composites. Continued work towards development of a laboratory assay for biodegradability will eventually result in the establishment of a sufficient database to elucidate these relationships, allowing development of a host of starch-containing plastic products for both existing and new markets. 

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