The physicochemical properties of Korean rice flour cultivars (Saemimyeon [SM], Hanareum No. 4 [HA], and Milyang No. 328 [MY]) with different amylose contents were analyzed and the effects of rice flour blending on their physicochemical property changes were investigated in this study. The swelling power of three different cultivars was similar at 60oC, but MY showed significantly enhanced swelling power at 80oC compared to SM and HA. In the pasting profile, MY showed significantly lower final and break-down viscosities than SM and HA due to its weak granular rigidity. In the case of the 1:1 blending of SM-MY and HA-MY, the measured values of swelling power and solubility were greatly decreased at 80oC, and the setback and final viscosity were significantly increased compared to their predicted arithmetic average values, showing the non-additive effects of blending. For the dynamic viscoelastic properties, SM-MY and HA-MY showed significantly decreased G’ and increased k’ and tanδ, compared to their predicted average values. In conclusion, the selected rice flour blends had non-additive effects on swelling power, solubility, pasting, and dynamic viscoelastic properties. These results showed the feasibility of the rice flour blending to diversify the physicochemical properties of rice flour for better processing suitability.

Rice starch is a natural source of polysaccharides that can be used as a stabilizer, thickener, binder and fat mimetic in various foods. However, untreated starch possesses limited functionality due to its poor water solubility with a densely packed granular structure of amylopectin and amylose chains. Also, it shows weak complexing ability as the only amylose participates in complex formation with a chemical compound. The objective of this study is to improve complexation ability and water solubility of rice starch by 4-α-glucanotransferase (4αGTase) treatment. Complex forming capacity was examined by fully dissolving the 4αGTase-treated rice starch in 90% DMSO by mechanical stirring and mixing with iodine solution with following UV/Vis spectrophotometer measurements. Water solubility of the starch was measured by dissolving in distilled water (5% w/v) with mechanical stirring at 25 °C and 60 °C, and drying the supernatant after centrifugation. The complexing ability of starch was enhanced after the 4αGTase treatment. The absorbance at a peak wavelength increased, as well as the peak wavelength was shifted leftward, indicating that the type of molecules got involved in the complexation was changed. Alteration in the molecule composition and starch composition during the enzyme treatment may be due to disproportionation and cyclization by the 4αGTase. The water solubility (%) of the starch at 25 °C and 60 °C increased by 28-fold with the 4αGTase treatment regardless of the treatment time. The untreated starch showed solubility of 0.15 %, while the solubility of the 4αGTase-treated starch was about 4 - 4.5 % (w/v). It may be due to heat treatment and recrystallization which melted a granular structure and made it easier to be solubilized in water. Moreover, the increased solubility might be attributed to increase in the number of short branched chains and decrease in molecular weight.

Curcumin is an active polyphenolic compound with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties. Curcumin, however, is highly unstable under physiological conditions due to its low stability in acidic and alkaline conditions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of enzyme-treated rice starch as a wall material on the stability of curcumin in oil-in-water emulsion under different pH conditions. The rice starch was treated using 4-a-glucanotransferase for different time periods and their molecular weight distribution was measured by HPSEC. Curcumin was encapsulated within lipid droplets of O/W emulsion prepared with Tween 20 and the modified rice starch in the aqueous phase at different concentrations (0, 2.5, 7.5 and 10 wt%). The temperature and pH stability of the system were determined respectively by measuring particle size, zeta potential and retention of the curcumin loaded in the emulsion after one-week storage in the solutions with different pH and temperature conditions. The average molecular weight of the modified starch decreased with treatment time. The 96h treated rice starch had the lowest molecular weight while the 1h treated starch mainly consisted of high molecular weight components. The storage temperature did not significantly influence the stability of curcumin emulsion. However, the particle size of the emulsion with modified starch slightly increased when stored at acidic pH condition, which might be attributed to starch aggregation. The curcumin retention was higher for the samples with the modified starch than the control at all concentrations. The pH stability of the curcumin was also higher than the control at all pH conditions. Specifically, the 1h treated starch showed the best performance regarding curcumin protection in emulsion, which might be attributed to the high viscosity that retarded the curcumin release. Further research needs to be conducted on the mechanism.

Although carnosic acid (CaA) is known as one of the useful polyphenolic compounds due to its antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, it is limited to use as aqueous solution because of its low solubility and unstability. The objective of this study was to investigate the capability of CA to improve the solubility of CaA by forming an inclusion complex in comparison with cyclodextrin (CD) and maltodextrin (MD). Enzymatically-produced CA was reacted with CaA in aqueous solution to form a complex using a freeze-drying. And the formation of complex between CaA and CA was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). As a result of XRD and DSC analysis, disappearance of characteristics of CaA that was reacted with CA could be indicated the complex formation between CaA and CA. The formation complex of CaA with CA was also confirmed through the change in morphology of CaA and CA in the electron micrograph result. Aqueous solubility of CaA with various concentrations (1, 5, 10, 20, 30%) of CA was measured by absorbance change at 285 nm. As a result, the solubility of the CaA was significantly increased with increasing CA concentration. At 30% CA, the maximum solubility of CaA was 0.095% (w/v) in solution, which was approximately 3 times higher than that of free CaA (0.033%). The effect of inclusion complex with CA on the solubility of CaA was superior than that with CD (0.057%) and MD (0.066%). These results indicated that the effects on the solubility and formation abilities of inclusion complex were associated with host materials and its concentration rate. This study confirmed that the CA can be a viable solution to improve the aqueous solubility of CaA. Further investigation is still needed to understand the effect of inclusion complex with CA.

A variety of rice cultivars have been developed and their usages are being expanded to develop value added products in relation to their physicochemical properties. Cyclodextrin (CD), commonly produced from potato starch, is widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries. So far, few studies have been reported on the CD production from rice starches. In this study, the physicochemical properties of various rice starches were investigated and their substrate performance were evaluated for the CD production using cyclodextrin-glucanotransferase (CGTase). Starches of 5 Korean rice cultivars, Dodamssal (DD), Ilpummi (IP), Saegoami (SG), Sintoheukmi (SH), and Geonganghongmi (GH) were isolated by alkaline extraction method. The amylose content of DD and SG was ~66% and ~30%, respectively, while the others ranged from ~18% to ~23%. A similar amylopectin branch chain length distribution was observed in SH, GH, and IP, showing higher content of middle chains B1. SG showed higher content of the short chains A and lower content of the long chains B3+ than SH, GH, and IP, whereas DD showed opposite trends. RVA pasting properties showed the lowest values of peak viscosity, breakdown, and final viscosity in DD. The X-ray diffraction pattern of DD was the typical B-type pattern, whereas the others showed A-type patterns. Most starches had typical polygonal granular shapes, whereas DD showed round shape as revealed by SEM. In order to produce CD, starches were treated with isoamylase, CGTase and glucoamylase in a sequential order. DD showed the highest CD yield of 83% and GH showed the lowest CD yield of 70%. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the starches with high amylose contents tend to show low peak viscosity, high pasting temperature, and high CD production yield.