Yield, physicochemical properties and in vitro digestibility of starch isolated from defatted meal made from microwaved tigernut (Cyperus esculentus L.) tubers

In this work, the effects of microwave treatment (MDT) of tigernut tubers at 540 W for 140, 180, 220, 240 s on the yield, physicochemical properties and in vitro digestibility of tigernut starch (TS) were firstly investigated. MDT significantly reduced the crystallinity and double helix structures of the starch, without altering its native A-type crystal structure. After microwaving for 140 s and 180 s, the extraction yield of TS was significantly increased from 14.92 % to 16.68 %, and a dense gel network structure was found by rheological analysis. In vitro digestion results indicated that the microwaved TS contained more content of rapidly digestible starch (RDS, 76.10 %–80.74 %) but lower slowly digestible starch (SDS, 2.85 %–5.78 %) and resistant starch (RS, 14.94 %–18.12 %); in other words, microwaving increased the in vitro digestibility of TS. This work elucidated the essential features of the response of tigernut starch to microwave treatment, and provided a basic understand of the digestibility of tigernut starch under microwave treatment, making it more suitable for industrial applications. [Display omitted] •Physicochemical characterization of microwaved tigernut starch was performed.•Microwaving tigernut tubers for 140–180 s at 540 W increased starch yield.•Microwaving disrupted the hierarchical structures of tigernut starch.•Microwaving improved the in vitro digestibility of tigernut starch.