Cereal Chem 55:447 - 454.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Effects of Certain Sugars and Sugar Alcohols on the Swelling of Cornstarch Granules.

H. L. Savage and E. M. Osman. Copyright 1978 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The effects of the swelling of cornstarch granules exerted by glucose, galactose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, lactose, sorbitol, and mannitol at levels of 5, 20, and 50% of the weight of water in the slurry were studied by means of the Brabender Visco/amylo/Graph; swelling power determinations at 75, 85, and 95 C water bath temperatures; and photomicrography. Increasing sugar concentrations increasingly delayed viscosity development in the amylograph, with the 50% sugars also causing a pronounced increase in the temperature of maximum viscosity. All pastes had essentially the same rate of viscosity increase, but the maximum viscosity varied with the sugar concentration. Decrease in viscosity from maximum during holding at 96 C was least rapid at 50% sugar levels, although 20% levels of the disaccharides sucrose and lactose also exerted a marked inhibition on breakdown of the pastes. Sugars at 5 and 20% levels generally showed little effect on swelling power, especially at 75 and 85 C. Sugars at the 50% level, however, inhibited granular swelling, with the various sugars yielding a greater variation in effect at 75 and 95 C than they did at 85 C. Photomicrographs made from pastes containing 50% sugars indicated agreement with the results of the other methods, judged on size of granules and relative number of birefringent granules. In all aspects of the study, disaccharides in general showed a markedly greater effect than did monosaccharides, with sugar alcohols intermediate. Maltose, however, exhibited an anomalous behavior, usually between that of the monosaccharides and other disaccharides.