Rapid Isolation of Sorghum and Other Cereal Starches Using Sonication

ABSTRACT High‐intensity ultrasound (sonication) was investigated as a method to rapidly purify starch from sorghum and other cereal grains. To improve the process, buffers were optimized to solubilize sorghum proteins in combination with the sonication. Protein content and starch color were determined to evaluate the efficiency of the extraction process. Sonication times, SDS concentration, different types and concentrations of reducing agents (sodium metabisulfite, dithiothreitol, and β‐mercaptoethanol), and centrifugation speeds of the starch washing procedure were tested. Protein content of isolated sorghum starch was reduced to 0–0.14% (db) after 2 min of sonication (using any of the reducing agents tested). Sodium metabisulfite was chosen as the preferred reducing agent because of its lower toxicity and odor compared with other reducing agents tested. The optimum conditions for producing high‐purity sorghum starches (0.06% protein) were obtained using the following conditions: 2 min of sonication time with 12.5 mM sodium borate buffer, pH 10, containing 0.5% SDS (w/v) and 0.5% sodium metabisulfite (w/v) using 1,500 rpm centrifugation speed during starch washing. Starches separated by this method showed significantly less protein content and b values (yellowness) compared with starches separated by enzymatic methods or methods using NaCl solutions and protein extraction buffers with multiple washing steps, both of which take several hours to complete. Differential scanning calorimetry thermogram values for starches isolated by three different methods showed similar patterns, except that starches obtained with the enzymatic method had slightly higher values of To, Tp, and ΔH. Other cereal starches from whole wheat meal, wheat flour, corn, rice, and barley were also obtained rapidly using sonication.