Enzymes are biocatalysts produced by living cells to bring about specific biochemical reactions which have applications in many fields, including organic synthesis, clinical analysis, pharmaceuticals, detergents, food production and fermentation. In this article, we briefly introduce the current understanding of industrially important enzymes in starch processing industry. In industry, starch is used in producing different compounds. Some of them are made by chemical methods but others are produced by just enzymes. Starch processing enzymes are categorized into two groups based on their operation. The first group are hydrolases that hydrolyze glycoside bonds by water as endo and exo. The second group are glucanohydrolases which break one glycoside α-1.4 bond and creates a new glycoside α-1.4 or α-1.6 linkages.
Importance of Starch
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Starch is a major reserve carbohydrate of higher plants and occurs in the form of water-insoluble granules. It is a heterogeneous polysaccharide composed of two high molecular weight entities called amylose and amylopectin. These two polymers have different structures and physical properties. The agricultural biomass containing starch can be used as a potent substrate for production of various important bioactive compounds or products like liquid or gaseous fuels, feed proteins and chemicals by using corn, wheat, oats, rice, potato, and cassava as the important substrates. Starch as an important constituent of human diet, can also be used chemically and enzymatically processed into a variety of different products such as starch hydrolysates, glucose syrups, fructose, maltodextrin derivatives or cyclodextrins, used in food industry. |
Types of Starch Processing Enzymes
As starch polymer has complex constructer, the combination of enzymes is needed for decomposing it to smaller parts or transferring oligo glycosidic bonds or creating new bonds. The important enzymes which are usually used for the biotechnology field and also starch process are called amylase. In one category, starch enzymes are classified into two groups: a) hydrolases which hydrolyze glycosidic bonds by water in two ways endo and exo; b) glucanotransferases which break one α-1.4 bound and create new α-1.4 or α-1.6 bound.
Most commercial applications of starch processing enzymes in food industry has been shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Commercial starch processing enzymes. (S. Esmaeili, et al. 2017)
| Application | Enzymes |
| Starch liquefaction | α-amylase |
| Starch saccharification | α-amylase, glucoamylas, pullulanase, isoamylase, maltogenic amylase |
| Baking industry | α-amylase |
| Anti-staling | α-amylase, β-amylase, pullulanase, debranched enzymes, branching enzymes, maltogenic amylase, glucoamylase, cyclodextrin glucanotransferases |
| Cycloamylose production | α-glucanotransferases |
Applications of Amylases
Amylases have many potential applications in a number of industrial processes, including production of glucose and fructose for syrup preparation industrial ethanol production using various starchy materials such as corn, wheat, and potatoes; Weizmann process for production for acetone and butanol by amylolytic and saccharolytic activities; lactic acid production by maltose and dextrose, which is produced from hydrolyzed corn starch; the liquifection along with gelatinization of viscus starch granules in sugar processing industry; in modern bread making techniques; in molecular biology; treatment of starch processing wastewater, etc. Amylases, especially alkaline amylases are used in detergents. To some extent, amylases are also used to supplement the diastatic activity of flour and to improve the digestibility of some of the animal feed ingredients.
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