Synthesis of α-D-Glucosylglycerol by α-Glucosidase and Some of Its Characteristics

It has been found that α-D-glucosylglycerol (GG) is contained in such traditional Japanese foods brewed by using koji as sake, miso and mirin, and that GG is formed by transglucosylation to glycerol that is produced by yeast with α-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.20) from koji in the sake mash. GG has also been found to consist of three components, 2-O-α-D-glucosylglycerol (GG-II), (2R)-1-O-α-D-glucosylglycerol (R-GG-I) and (2S)-1-O-α-D-glucosylglycerol (S-GG-I). GG was synthesized from a mixture of maltose and glycerol by the batch method, using α-glucosidase (transglucosidase L-AMANO). α-Glucosidase seemed to be so stable that the amount of GG increased about 5-fold compared with that in the first reaction by the daily addition of maltose for 10 d. Syrupy GG obtained was found to have the following characteristics: about 0.55-fold sweetness compared with sucrose, high thermo-stability, low heat-colorability, low Maillard reactivity, low hygroscopicity, high water-holding capacity, non-cariogenicity and low digestibility.