An insight into the mechanism of interactions between mushroom polysaccharides and starch

Abstract

Mushrooms are a valuable food source due to their biological compounds, especially polysaccharides, and the supplementation of mushroom materials into starchy foods is a hot topic. The addition of mushroom polysaccharides has an important impact on the gelatinisation and digestibility of starch molecules, and the physical quality of products. This is related to the interaction between starch and mushroom polysaccharides. The interactions include crosslinking, entanglement, as well as encapsulation or coating on the surface of starch granules via hydrogen bonding. Mushroom polysaccharides can have a hypoglycaemic effect during starch digestion because of the form of physical barrier to digestive enzymes and the inhibition of starch gelatinisation. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of interactions between mushroom polysaccharides and starch provides a promising approach to achieve starchy products with good consumer quality, and valuable nutritional functions.