The Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center of the Shaanxi Province Institute of Biological Agriculture has significantly increased the yield of fructooligosaccharides by combining citric acid pretreatment with enzymatic hydrolysis of guar gum. This method successfully addresses the low conversion efficiency and complex purification steps in traditional approaches. The research findings have been published in Bioresource Technology.
The team utilized citric acid for pretreating guar gum, which disrupts the complex structure of guar gum while effectively reducing its viscosity. Subsequently, by optimizing the enzymatic hydrolysis conditions, fructooligosaccharides were completely degraded into fructooligosaccharides and monosaccharides, with a fructooligosaccharide yield of 61.8%. Compared to traditional methods, the fructooligosaccharide yield nearly doubled, demonstrating strong competitiveness. Moreover, monosaccharides in the hydrolysate can be removed through yeast fermentation, simplifying the separation and purification process of fructooligosaccharides and reducing equipment requirements. Following this, desalination treatment was conducted using ion exchange resin, and ultimately, high-purity fructooligosaccharide solids with a purity of up to 90% were successfully obtained through spray drying. This successful research provides new ideas and methods for the industrial production of high-purity fructooligosaccharides prebiotics, offering broad application prospects and potential market value.
For more information, please refer to the research paper at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2024.130719
