Review of the ethanol-induced V-type starch (EVS) with different types, including its preparation, characterization, and possible application in food field

Ethanol can induce the formation of a class of V-type starch under different conditions, which is later evaporated during subsequent drying process, and this ethanol-induced V-type starch (EVS) has two distinctive features. On the one hand, most of EVS can quickly swell into paste or dissolve in cold water, which could be expressed in terms of increased solubility, swelling power, viscosity, water absorption, or water retention capacity in cold water; on the other hand, the evaporation of ethanol leaves a V-type single helix cavity structure, which has the potential to rapidly encapsulate a variety of guest molecules under mild conditions and has attracted more and more attention of researchers. Different preparation methods result in EVS of different types: granular EVS, non-granular EVS and nanoscale EVS depending on the size and the structural scale of the native starch that is preserved during the preparation process. Different types of EVS have different performances in terms of paste properties and encapsulation characteristics. Among the three EVS, the granular and non-granular EVS swell more rapidly in cold water, and the EVS at nanoscale has a higher proportion of V-type single helical cavity structure with a higher encapsulation potential. This paper summarizes the variety of preparation methods of EVS, discusses the mechanism underlying its formation, analyses the relationship between structure and function properties, presents the prospects of development and the existing challenges in perfecting the structure of EVS, and further proposes the possible applications of granular, non-granular and nanoscale EVS in food field.