Effect of Ferulic Acid on Physicochemical Properties of Wheat Starch

In this study, methods of scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimeter and rapid viscosity analyzer (RVA) were used to investigate the microstructures, crystallinity, pasting and thermodynamic properties of the wheat flour with adding ferulic acid at a certain level (0, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%). With the increase of ferulic acid content, the surface irregularity of starch increased and the compactness decreased. When the proportion of ferulic acid reached 10%, the T₀, T_P, T_C and ΔH significantly decreased, indicating that ferulic acid reduced the stability of wheat starch. The peak intensity of (1045/1022) cm^-1 decreased with addition of ferulic acid, indicating that the order of wheat starch decreased. After gelatinization, the type of wheat starch changed from A to B+V. X-ray diffraction showed that ferulic acid and wheat starch did not form an inclusion complex. RVA results showed that ferulic acid decreased the peak viscosity of wheat starch, the lowest viscosity, the final viscosity and the setback value, while ferulic acid increased disintegration value. It was indicated that ferulic acid inhibits the aging process of wheat starch. The results of scanning electron microscopy also proved that ferulic acid inhibited the aging process.