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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Sustainable Biofuels and Co-products Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #301964
Title: Comparison of Xylo-oligosaccharides production by autohydrolysis of fibers separated from ground corn flour and DDGS

Author
item SAMALA, ADITYA - Mississippi State University
item SRINIVASAN, RADHAKRISHNAN - Mississippi State University
item Yadav, Madhav

Submitted to: Journal of Food and Bioproducts Processing
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/18/2014
Publication Date: 5/2/2014
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/62223
Citation: Samala, A., Srinivasan, R., Yadav, M.P. 2014. Comparison of Xylo-oligosaccharides production by autohydrolysis of fibers separated from ground corn flour and DDGS. Journal of Food and Bioproducts Processing. 94:354-364.

Interpretive Summary: In dry grind corn processing, ethanol is produced from the starch portion of the kernel and the remaining material is dried to produce distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). This relatively low value material is the only coproduct (other than carbon dioxide) and has a limited number of uses. In order to generate new value added coproducts and improve the economics of ethanol production, xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) were produced from corn fiber separated from DDGS. The XOS were also prepared from the commercial ground corn flour for comparing its yield from both sources. For XOS production, a simple heating process in a closed vessel was used, which does not require any chemical treatment. It is very economical and takes a short time to complete the whole auto hydrolysis process. XOS are reported to have beneficial health properties and considered to be functional food ingredient. They are low digestible sugar and utilized as prebiotic to stimulate the growth and activity of beneficial bacteria in the colon. This finding will be useful to commercial manufacturers who are trying to develop a new commercial product based upon fiber separated from DDGS. If successful, it will lead to new markets for DDGS and corn flour, which will benefit U.S. corn processors and corn growers. The generation and recovery of additional valuable product from corn dry milling by-products will also indirectly help to reduce overall cost of fuel ethanol produced from corn kernels.

Technical Abstract: Xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) are known to have beneficial health properties, and are considered to be functional food ingredients. The objective of this study is to compare corn fibers separated from ground corn flour and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) for XOS yield and optimum authoydrolysis conditions. Based on the initial xylan content, the fiber separated from ground corn flour resulted in higher XOS yield (71.5%) than the fiber separated from DDGS (54.6%) at the maximum XOS production conditions. Based on total initial material also, fiber separated from ground corn flour resulted in higher XOS yield (8.9%) than fiber separated from DDGS (8.0%). Thus, fiber separated from ground corn flour would be a better feedstock for production of XOS than fiber separated from DDGS. The conditions for maximum XOS production from fibers separated from DDGS and ground corn flour were 180 ºC with 20 min hold-time and 190 ºC with 10 min hold-time, respectively.