Effects of fatty acids with various chain lengths and degrees of unsaturation on the structure, physicochemical properties and digestibility of maize starch-fatty acid complexes

In this study, we investigated the effects of chain length and degree of unsaturation of fatty acid (FA) on the structure, physicochemical properties, and in vitro digestibility of maize starch (MS)–FA complexes. Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy revealed that crystalline structure with V-type was formed between MS and FA. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy confirmed that the complexes with various FA structures displayed different V-type polymorphs. The thermal stability of the complexes with 14-carbon and 16-carbon FAs was better than that of other complexes. The complexes with 12-carbon (21.77%) and 14-carbon (26.31%) FAs displayed high resistant starch (RS) content, whereas those with 10-carbon FAs exhibited high slowly digestible starch (SDS) content (28.99%). Additionally, the FAs with a chain length of 10–14 carbons produced more ordered structures and showed stronger intermolecular interactions with MS than other FAs. For the 18-carbon FAs, the complexes with unsaturated FAs displayed higher RS and SDS content than those with saturated FAs. Moreover, the unsaturated FAs showed stronger intermolecular interactions with MS than the saturated FAs. These results indicated that FA structures significantly affected the structures of complexes, further affecting their physicochemical and digestive properties.