Chemical and Functional Properties of Food Saccharides

© 2004 by CRC Press LLC
polymers are required for certain products, membrane filtration and chromatography
might be appropriate ways to cut sections of interest from total distribution profiles.
Another way of obtaining distribution profiles can be partial hydrolysis with
endoinulinases, which form fructose oligomers from inulin. Hydrolysis of inulin,
however, results in an increase of reducing molecules in a mixture of b(2Æ1)fructofuranosyl
residues with and without terminal glucosyl residues. These reducing
oligomers of fructans have high affinity to secondary amino groups, amino acids,
peptides, and proteins forming Maillard products.
Inulin from chicory is available on the Western European market as Frutafit ®
manufactured by Sensus, The Netherlands; Raftiline ® series by Orafti, Belgium; and
Fibroline ® series by Cosucra, Belgium. A standard preparation of Raftiline ® , for
instance, contains ca. 92% inulin and high-molecular-weight compounds with an
average DP of 25 and no mono- or disaccharides. Raftiline ® is characterized by
neutral taste and has a wide range of applications in the food industry, in particular
for manufacturing dietetic food. Raftiline ® as a supplement improves the performance
of low-fat products such as pasteurized fresh cheese, prebiotic advantages in
general and improved calcium absorption in particular.
FOSs are endoinulinase-depolymerized oligomers from chicory inulin and are
available under the trade names Frutalose (Sensus), Raftilose ® (Orafti), and Fibrolose
® (Cosucra). They all contain ca. 95% FOSs and are applied for similar purposes.
FOSs with a DP of 3 to 5 are achieved by transfructosylation of b-fructosidase from
Aspergillus niger on sucrose Actilight ® (Beghin Meiji, Eridania Béghin-Say, France)
and Neosugar ® (Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd., Japan). The approval of FOSs in Japan
prompted the establishment of an acceptable daily intake of ca. 0.8 g/kg body
weight/day.
13.4.3 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE (HELIANTHUS TUBEROSUS L.)
Another source of inulin and FOSs are a wide variety of Jerusalem artichoke
cultivars, which can be cultivated as early, middle, or late species with individual,
however, specific, carbohydrate composition profiles. Appropriate selection of varieties
and time of harvesting enables a continuous harvesting period starting from
September till the appearance of the first frost. Because they are frost resistant,
Jerusalem artichoke tubers can stay on the field over wintertime, which enables
another harvesting in spring. However, carbohydrate compositions of spring tubers
differ significantly from those of autumn tubers: a shift from high- to low-molecularweight
components with a ca. fivefold increase in sucrose concentration and ca. 35%
decrease in FOS and inulin concentration 27–29 (Figure 13.5, Table 13.2).
In some areas of the U.S. (California, Washington, Minnesota), Canada, and
Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Ukraine), Jerusalem artichoke tubers
are known as sunchoke or topinambur and are popular vegetables. Their taste is
rather similar to artichoke hearts of globe artichoke, delightfully sweet — in
particular those made from spring-harvested tubers with a high sucrose content —
with a nutty or easy, earthy flavor. Tubers are consumed crude or boiled, backed,
or fried. In particular, products made from autumn tubers are perfect basic material
for diabetics as they are low in sucrose.