Mechanochemical depolymerization of inulin.

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Physical Chemistry
• Green Chemistry

Background:

• Mechanical force-driven chemical reactions are emerging in physical sciences.
• Applications in food science remain largely unexplored.
• Inulin is a polysaccharide with potential prebiotic properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate ball milling as a method for controlled fructooligosaccharide (FOS) generation from inulin.
• To evaluate the effect of aluminum chloride (AlCl3) catalysis on FOS production.
• To assess the prebiotic potential of the generated FOS mixtures.

Main Methods:

• Ball milling of inulin with and without catalytic AlCl3 (30 min, 30 Hz).
• Analysis of saccharide composition using anion exchange chromatography and ESI/qTOF/MS/MS.
• Depolymerization assessment via dialysis.

Main Results:

• Ball milling with AlCl3 catalysis produced FOS mixtures rich in di-D-fructose dianhydrides.
• Catalyzed milling increased mono-, di-, and tri-saccharide content by approximately 30-fold compared to uncatalyzed milling.
• Depolymerization (dp < 12) increased from 27.6% to 73.4% under catalyzed conditions.

Conclusions:

• Ball milling is an effective, cost-efficient, and green method for inulin conversion.
• Catalyzed mechanical processing yields valuable prebiotic food ingredients.
• This approach offers a sustainable alternative for producing functional food components.