Food & Beverage Asia December 2020/January 2021

SIFST Technical Article
quantity, would be an effective approach or strategy towards
managing the prevalence of T2D (Wee & Henry, 2020). This
further prompted the efforts and interests of many studies to
lower the Glycaemic Response (GR) and Glycaemic Index (GI) as
well as boosting the nutritional values, of white bread through
the incorporation of dietary fibres. Apart from that, high dietary
fibre intake has also been widely reported to be beneficial for
the overall human health as it prevents and protects against the
development of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease,
colorectal cancer, and degenerative diseases (Augustin et al.,
2015; Sangnark & Noomhorm, 2004; Sangnark & Noomhorm,
2003).
In agreement with many studies, one holistic approach to reduce
GR in white bread applications could be the use of dietary fibres
owing to its ability to increase food viscosity, which therefore,
functions to reduce eating rate gastric emptying rate (Zhu et
al., 2013), or intestinal glucose absorption rates as reported by
previous studies (Russell et al., 2013; Martínez-Bustos et al.,
2011).
WHAT ARE GI AND GR?
Carbohydrate quality is measured by Glycaemic Response
(GR) and Glycaemic Index (GI). According to the International
Organisation for Standardisation (ISO 26642:2010), GR is the
change in blood glucose concentration or incremental area
under the blood glucose response curve (iAUC) elicited for 2-3
hours after consuming a carbohydrate-containing food or meal.
On the other hand, GI is based on an equal amount of available
carbohydrate (standardised GR) and the relative to a referent food
(relative GR), usually glucose solution, white wheat bread, or white
rice (Wee & Henry, 2020; Augustin et al., 2015; Monro & Shaw,
2008).
For GI testing in Singapore, according to the Health Promotion
Board, which follows the ISO’s standards, at least 7.5g of
glycaemic carbohydrate must be required in per serving of the
tested food product (Health Promotion Board, 2020). After which,
depending on the GI values on the glucose scale, foods can be
classified into different level depending on the rate of digestion,
absorption and metabolization of carbohydrates. For instance,
high GI foods of ≥ 70 have a rapid rate and vice versa, low GI
foods of ≤55 have a slower rate.
WHAT IS SUGARCANE FIBRE?
Sugarcane fibres are a type of lignocellulosic material classified as
an insoluble dietary fibre (Poran et al., 2008; Gould et al., 1989).
They are main by-products derived from sugarcane processing
(Sangnark & Noomhorm, 2004), and these fibrous residues are
claimed to be one of the world’s largest agriculture residues
(Loh et al., 2013). Due to its low fabricating costs and abundancy,
which makes them a sustainable and high green end material these
sugarcane fibre wastes are ideal raw material with multiple utilities,
especially in the manufacturing of polymeric composite materials
(Loh et al., 2013). Apart from that, fertilisers and cattle feeds were
reported to be one of the more common use of sugarcane fibres as
well (Sangnark & Noomhorm, 2004).
As mentioned earlier, sugarcane fibres are ideal candidate to be
utilised in the health food formulations due to its dietary fibre
components which comprises mainly cellulose, hemi-cellulose
and lignin (Martínez-Bustos et al., 2011). Between a couple of
studies, the cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin constituents of
sugarcane fibre varies slightly, from 55-58%, 26-32% and 19-22%,
respectively to 45%, 26% and 19%, respectively (Sangnark &
Noomhorm, 2004).
EFFECTS OF SUGARCANE FIBRES ON GLYCAEMIC
RESPONSE AND OTHER HEALTH BENEFITS
According to Dhital et al., (2015), the presence of cellulose was
demonstrated to reduce the hydrolysis of starch by α-amylase
owing to its ability to have rapid binding interaction of α-amylase to
cellulose, as opposed to α-amylase to granular starch. Through this
mixed type inhibition mechanism, the α-amylase enzymatic activity
would thus be inhibited. Moreover, cellulose, being a polysaccharide
is undegradable by α-amylase as the β (1 → 4) glucan linkages of
cellulose is unhydrolysable by the enzymatic activity. As proposed
by Adedayo et al., (2018), such inhibition mechanism is vital in
controlling the amount of glucose release, and thereby, forming the
foundation of GI reduction.
Other benefits of sugarcane fibres, apart from the glycaemic
response of food, include the exhibition of second-meal effect,
through a mechanism related to colonic fermentation, which could
improve blood glucose regulation and tolerance for subsequent
meals, as well as increased satiety levels post-meal that may result
in modest weight loss and thereby, reducing insulin resistance and
the risk of developing T2D (Weickert & Pfeiffer, 2018). Additionally,
previous research has indicated that insoluble fibres have effects on
increasing fermentative activity by bacteria in the colon, resulting
in the production of propionic acid (a type of short chain fatty
acids) and thereby, moderate hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism
(Russell et al., 2013; Björck & Elmståhl, 2003). Since sugarcane
fibres are mainly composed of insoluble fibres, it is possible to use
sugarcane fibre to modulate fermentative activities in the colon, but
more research is needed to verify it.
IMPLICATIONS OF USING SUGARCANE FIBRES IN BREAD
FORMULATIONS
Apart from the benefits of sugarcane fibre on reducing glycaemic
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA DECEMBER 2020 / JANUARY 2021