Structural Orders of Wheat Starch Do Not Determine the In Vitro Enzymatic Digestibility

In this study, we elucidated the underlying mechanisms that are responsible for the rate-limiting step for wheat starch digestion. Wheat starch samples with a degree of gelatinization (DG) ranging from 0 to 100% were prepared. As DG increased, the ordered structures of the starch were disrupted increasingly. In contrast, almost all of the increase in the rate and extent of in vitro enzymatic digestion coincided with a DG of only 6% and a minor loss of structural order. As DG increased beyond 6%, digestibility of the starch increased only slightly. We propose that the access and binding of enzymes to starch is greatly increased with only a small DG, which is followed by the simultaneous hydrolysis of crystalline and amorphous areas in gelatinized starch. In vitro enzymatic digestibility of starch was determined predominantly by enzyme binding to starch rather than the ordered structures of starch.