Amyloglucosidase Hydrolysis of High-Pressure and Thermally Gelatinized Corn and Wheat Starches

The study of glucose production using amyloglucosidase as a biocatalyst was carried out using high-pressure and thermally gelatinized corn and wheat starches. For corn starch, the measured initial rate of glucose production obtained from thermal gelatinization is faster than that obtained from the two high-pressure treatments, but the equilibrium yield of glucose was found to be similar for the three treatments. High-pressure treatments of wheat starch significantly improve the equilibrium yield of glucose compared with those obtained from the thermally gelatinized wheat starch. This difference has been related to the formation of amylose−lipid complexes during heating and could also explain previous physicochemical differences observed between high-pressure and thermally gelatinized starch. Keywords: Starch gelatinization; high pressure; biocatalysis; starch hydrolysis