Effect of ball milling on the lipase-catalyzed synthesis of starch ferulate: multi-scale structural, physicochemical and digestive properties

Ball milling enhanced enzyme catalysis is a novel biocatalytic and conversion technology that offers significant potential for development in the food manufacturing industry due to its high efficiency and environmental friendliness. This study aims to investigate the effects of ball milling on lipase-catalyzed synthesis of starch ferulate (SF), focusing on multi-scale structure, physicochemical properties, and digestive characteristics. The results indicate that ball milling enhanced lipase-catalyzed treatment effectively disrupts the dense granular structure of starch, reducing its particle size distribution (425.4±5.50 nm to 226.8±10.18 nm), relative crystallinity (42.21±1.24 to 13.27±1.53), short-range ordered structure (1.69±0.017 to 0.38±0.17) and double helix structure (1.25±0.035 to 0.84±0.010). As well the gelatinization temperature and viscosity of SF prepared by ball milling enhanced lipase-catalyzed treatment were significantly decreased, and the anti-aging property and the content of resistant starch (8.48 ±0.52 to 24.83±0.91) were significantly increased. These results provide both a new insight into the preparation methods for phenolic acid-modified starch and facilitate the development of low-viscosity, processing-stable, functional starch products and starch gels. • Ball milling enhanced lipase-catalyzed can significantly affect the multi-scale structure of starch, including the decrease of particle size, crystallinity, short-range ordered structure, and double helix structure. • Ball milling enhanced lipase-catalyzed treatment reduced the gelatinization temperature and viscosity of starch ferulate, and enhanced its thermal stability and aging resistance. • Ball milling enhanced lipase-catalyzed is beneficial to increase the content of resistant starch, which provides support for the development of functional starch-based foods that delay the rise of blood glucose.