LAUSR

Abstract As phenolic compounds, alkyl gallates may inhibit the activity of digestive enzymes for starch. Furthermore, their alkyl chains may facilitate starch inclusion complexation and results in an increased resistant starch (RS) content or slowly digestible starch (SDS) content, which may further retard starch digestion. The significance of such inhibition is that the rate of starch hydrolysis into glucose is reduced, thereby preventing hyperglycemia and related metabolic diseases. This study examined the inhibitory effects on in vitro enzymatic digestion of starch by gallic acid and five alkyl gallates of varying alkyl chain lengths, i.e., butyl gallate, octyl gallate, dodecyl gallate, hexadecyl gallate, and octadecyl gallate. Raw and cooked potato starch (PS) and high-amylose maize starch (HAMS) were tested. For both types of raw starch, gallic acid and all the alkyl gallates significantly (p