Fabrication and characterization of tea seed starch-tea polyphenol complexes

This study investigates the complexation between tea seed starch (TSS) and tea polyphenols (TPs) at varying concentrations (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10.0 %). The objectives can expand the knowledge of TSS, which is a novel starch, and to examine how TPs influence the structure and physicochemical properties of the complexes. Results indicate that TPs interact with TSS through hydrogen bonding, altering granule morphology and disrupting ordered structure of starch. Depending on the concentration, TPs induce either V-type or non-V-type crystal structures within TSS, which had bearing on iodine binding capacity, swelling, pasting, gelatinization, retrogradation, rheology, and gel structure. In vitro digestibility analysis reveals that TSS-TPs complexes tend to reduce readily digestible starch while increasing resistant starch fractions with higher TP concentrations. Thus, TSS-TPs complexes physicochemical and digestibility properties can be modulated, providing a wide range of potential applications in the food industry.