Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

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Food Chemistry
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Quality assessment of noodles made from blends of rice our and canna
starch
Yuree Wandee a, Dudsadee Uttapap a,, Santhanee Puncha-arnon a, Chureerat Puttanlek b,
Vilai Rungsardthong c, Nuanchawee Wetprasit d
a

Division of Biochemical Technology, School of Bioresources and Technology, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkhuntien, Bangkok 10150, Thailand
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom 73000, Thailand
Department of Agro-Industrial, Food, and Environmental Technology, Faculty of Applied Science, King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkok 10800, Thailand
d
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok 10240, Thailand
b
c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 18 November 2014
Received in revised form 22 January 2015
Accepted 24 January 2015
Available online 31 January 2015
Keywords:
Rice noodles
Canna starch
Dietary ber
Short-chain fatty acids
Butyric acid

a b s t r a c t
Canna starch and its derivatives (retrograded, retrograded debranched, and cross-linked) were evaluated
for their suitability to be used as prebiotic sources in a rice noodle product. Twenty percent of the rice
our was replaced with these tested starches, and the noodles obtained were analyzed for morphology,
cooking qualities, textural properties, and capability of producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Crosslinked canna starch could increase tensile strength and elongation of rice noodles. Total dietary ber
(TDF) content of noodles made from rice our was 3.0% and increased to 5.1% and 7.3% when rice our
was replaced with retrograded and retrograded debranched starches, respectively. Cooking qualities
and textural properties of noodles containing 20% retrograded debranched starch were mostly comparable, while the capability of producing SCFAs and butyric acid was superior to the control rice noodles; the
cooked noodle strips also showed fewer tendencies to stick together.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The rice noodleproduced from rice our or rice our mixed
with other components, such as cassava starch, modied starch
or hydrocolloidsis one of the most popular varieties of Asian noodles, and is widely consumed throughout Southeast Asia
(Bhattacharya, Zee, & Corke, 1999; Hormdok & Noomhorm,
2007). Rice noodles are high in carbohydrates and calories but
low in dietary ber (DF) and resistant starch (RS) (Puwastien,
Raroengwichit, Sungpuag, & Judprasong, 1999). Presently, consumers are more concerned with the health effects of DF as well as RS
in carbohydrate-rich foods. Accordingly, various aspects related to
DF/RS for example, potential sources, digestion and fermentation,
physiological effects, qualities of food products, acceptability by
consumers, etc. have been extensively researched.
A number of studies related to noodle qualities have investigated the potential of adding ber sources to noodles made from
wheat. However, much less information is available regarding rice
noodles, perhaps due to the more severe effect of DF on their textural qualities. According to the report of Srikaeo, Mingyai, and
Sopade (2011), noodles made from rice our replaced with 20%
Corresponding author. Tel.: +66 2 470 7754; fax: +66 2 452 3479.
E-mail address: dudsadee.utt@kmutt.ac.th (D. Uttapap).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.01.119
0308-8146/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

unripe banana our, canna our or commercial modied corn

starch had signicantly higher RS content (2.5%, 3.6% and 8.8%,
respectively) than noodles made from rice our only (1.0%).
Recently, Wandee et al. (2014) showed that rice noodles incorporated with 15% cassava pulp and 5% pomelo peel contained much
higher total dietary ber (TDF) content (14.4%) than the control
(3.0%), while their textural properties were comparable. However,
there have been no reports on the physiological effects and fermentability of rice noodles enriched with DF/RS, either in vivo or
in vitro studies.
RS is the total amount of starch and the products of starch degradation that are not digested in the small intestine and pass into
the colon, similar to dietary ber (Englyst, Kingman, & Cummings,
1992; Topping & Clifton, 2001). RS is fermented by colonic microora, producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and gas (H2, CO2
and CH4). The fermentation rate and relative molar ratio of SCFAs
are dependent on the amount and type of RS (Annison &
Topping, 1994). SCFAs mainly acetic, propionic and butyric acids
are absorbed and metabolized in various organs, leading to different physiological effects. Butyric acid is completely metabolized
in the colonic epithelial cells, and therefore has been shown to play
an important role in the maintenance of colonic health (Topping &
Clifton, 2001). In vitro studies as well as animal studies indicate
that butyric acid has the potential to reduce risk factors that are

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Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

involved in the development of colorectal cancer (inhibiting proliferation while increasing differentiation and apoptosis) (Brouns,
Kettlitz, & Arrigoni, 2002).
Canna starch, a kind of starch extracted from rhizomes of the
edible canna plant (Canna edulis Ker.), is mostly used for preparing
transparent starch noodles, a traditional food of Southeast Asia.
High resistance of canna starch granules to enzyme hydrolysis has
been reported by Hung and Morita (2005), Srichuwong, Sunarti,
Mishima, Isono, and Hisamatsu (2005), and Puncha-arnon,
Puttanlek, Rungsardthong, Pathipanawat, and Uttapap (2007).
Canna starch and its derivatives have been reported to contain a signicant amount of RS. Native, acetylated, hydroxypropylated,
octenyl succinylated, and cross-linked canna starches gelatinized
at 100 C for 10 min were found to contain 20.8%, 33.8%, 43.5%,
51.3% and 35.3% RS, respectively (Juansang, Puttanlek,
Rungsardthong, Puncha-arnon, & Uttapap, 2012). Wandee,
Puttanlek, Rungsardthong, Puncha-arnon, and Uttapap (2012)
prepared retrograded starch (RS type 3) from canna starch by
gelatinization and then stored the gels at different times and
temperatures. Under suitable conditions, the thermally stable RS
fraction in canna starch could be increased from 1.9% to 16.8%.
Bernab, Srikaeo, and Schlter (2011) reported that fermentation
of raw canna starch with fresh human feces as inoculum produced
signicantly higher total SCFAs and butyric acid compared with
banana, potato, mung bean and taro starches. However, there has
been no information on the quality and fermentability of rice noodles incorporated with canna starch and its derivatives. Therefore,
this study aimed to assess the potential of canna starch and its
derivatives (retrograded, retrograded debranched, and crosslinked) as sources of DF in dried rice noodles.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Raw materials
Commercial rice our containing 22% amylose (dry weight
basis; dwb) was purchased from Patum Rice Mill and Granary Public Co. Ltd., Pathum Thani, Thailand. Eight-month-old rhizomes of
edible canna plants were obtained from the Rayong Field Crops
Research Center, Rayong, Thailand; the starch was isolated
according to a procedure described by Puncha-arnon et al.
(2007). Amylose content of canna starch determined according to
the method of Jayakody and Hoover (2002) was 23.9% (dwb).
Cross-linked canna starch (CL) was prepared following the method
of Emrat (2007), using 0.2% w/w sodium trimetaphosphate as a
cross-linking agent. Retrograded canna starch was prepared by
autoclaving starch at 121 C for 120 min and then storing gel at
4 C for 3 days (Wandee et al., 2012). A similar procedure, except
that gelatinized starch was debranched with pullulanase enzyme
(64 PUN/g starch) for 24 h prior to storage, was used to obtain retrograded debranched canna starch.
2.2. Dried noodle preparation
40 g (dwb) of our mixes were prepared by mixing rice our with
20% of native, retrograded, retrograded debranched, or cross-linked
canna starches. Water was then added to each our mix to obtain a
slurry with a concentration of 40% w/v. 30 ml of slurry was spread
evenly on a stainless tray (11.4  21.6 cm) and steamed for 1 min.
Each noodle sheet was peeled from the tray and dried at 70 C for
15 min. The noodle sheets were stacked, covered with cheesecloth
and allowed to rest for 3 h at room temperature, then cut into strips
3.0 mm wide. The noodles were further dried in a hot-air oven at
40 C until the moisture content decreased to 1012%. Dried noodles
were packed in polyethylene bags and kept at room temperature for
further quality investigation.

2.3. Analyses of noodles

2.3.1. Determination of water absorption index
In order to obtain information on the ability of each raw material to absorb water, single-component our/starch (100%) was
used to prepare noodles using the procedure described above. It
was found that noodles could be produced from a slurry of rice
our, native canna starch or cross-linked starch at a concentration
of 40% w/v; however, slurries of retrograded and retrograded debranched starches were too thick, and concentrations of only 15% for
retrograded starch and 30% for retrograded debranched starch
could be used for noodle sheet formation. The water absorption
index of the noodles obtained was determined according to the
method of Anderson, Conway, Pfeifer, and Grifn (1969), with a
slight modication. Dried noodles were cut into small pieces (3
5 cm length), ground with a Pulverisette 14 variable-speed rotor
mill (Fritsch, Idar-Oberstein, Germany) and sieved through a
106 lm screen. A noodle powder sample (0.5 g, dwb) was added
to 15 ml of distilled water in a centrifuge tube, then vigorously
mixed with a vortex mixer before placing in a shaker at 30 C for
30 min. After centrifugation at 1127g for 15 min, the supernatant
was carefully removed and the sediment was weighed.

Water absorption index WAI; g=g

wet sediment weight

dry sample weight

2.3.2. Cooking quality analysis

Cooking time of noodles was determined according to the AACC
(1995) method for spaghetti, with a slight modication. Dried rice
noodles (5 g) were cut into 5-cm lengths and cooked in 200 ml
boiling distilled water in a covered beaker. Optimum cooking time
was determined by removing a piece of noodle every 30 s and
pressing the cooked noodle between two glass slides until the
white, hard core of the noodle strand disappeared. At least ve
measurements were performed for each sample.
Cooking weight and cooking loss of starch noodles were measured according to the AACC method (1995), with a slight modication. At least ve replications were done for each measurement.
Dried rice noodles (1.0 g) were cut into small pieces (35 cm in
length) and boiled in 30 ml water until completely cooked. The
cooked noodles were then ltered through a nylon screen, rinsed
with distilled water, drained for 1 min, and immediately weighed.
Cooking weight was determined from the difference between noodle weights before and after cooking, and expressed as the percentage of g cooked noodle/g dried noodle. Cooking loss was
determined by evaporating to dryness the cooking water and rinse
water in a pre-weighed glass beaker in a hot-air oven at 105 C, and
was expressed as the percentage of solid loss during cooking.
2.3.3. Textural prole analysis
The texture of a 10-cm length of cooked noodle was measured
using a texture analyzer (EZTest EZ-S-50N; Shimadzu, Tokyo,
Japan) equipped with a pair of noodle elongation jigs (No. 17; Shimadzu). A 15 N load cell was applied to measure the tensile
strength of noodles at an elongation speed of 60 mm/min. The initial distance between clamps was set at 10.0 cm. From the force
displacement curve (mm), measurements of tensile stress (N/
mm2; Pa) and elongation (%) were generated using the texture
analysis software (Trapezium 2 version 2.24). At least 15 strands
of noodles were measured for each sample.
2.3.4. Total dietary ber (TDF) analysis
TDF content of rice noodles was measured using a TDF assay kit
(Megazyme International Ireland, Wicklow, Ireland), following
AOAC method 985.29 (AOAC, 2000). Dried noodles were cut into

Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

Rice flour

Canna starch

Retrograded starch

Retro-debranched starch

87

100% Rice flour noodle

20% Native canna starch noodle

20% Cross-linked starch noodle

20% Retrograded starch noodle

20% Retrograded debranched starch noodle

Fig. 1. Morphologies of raw materials and upper surface of noodles made from rice our and rice our substituted with 20% native, cross-linked, retrograded, and retrograded
debranched canna starches.

small pieces (35 cm length), ground with a Pulverisette 14 variable-speed rotor mill (Fritsch, Germany) and sieved through a
106 lm screen prior to analysis. Samples were gelatinized with a
heat-stable a-amylase (pH 6, 100 C, 30 min) and then enzymatically digested sequentially with protease (pH 7.5, 60 C, 30 min)
and amyloglucosidase (pH 4.5, 60 C, 30 min) to remove protein
and starch. TDF was precipitated with ethanol, and after washing
and drying, the residue was weighed.
TDF %

sample residue  protein from residue  ash from residue  blank

sample weight
 100

2.4. In vitro fermentation

2.4.1. Pre-digestion of noodle samples
Prior to in vitro fermentation, all noodle samples were digested
by in vitro enzymatic digestion according to the method of Englyst
et al. (1992), with modications. Briey, 10 g of noodle powder
was added to 200 ml water in an Erlenmeyer ask. The suspension
was heated at 80 C for 5 min and then placed in a water bath at
37 C for 10 min to equilibrate. Sodium acetate buffer (0.1 M, pH
5.2, containing 4 mM CaCl2) was added and the mixture was
shaken well by hand. Alpha-amylase (9000 U/g starch; Sigma
A-3173) and amyloglucosidase (75 U/g starch; Sigma P7545) were

then added and the ask was incubated at 37 C for 2 h in a shaking

water bath. Undigested residue was recovered, washed twice with
distilled water and freeze-dried. Duplicate dried samples were
pooled and ground in a mortar, passed through a 106 lm sieve,
and used for in vitro fermentation.
2.4.2. Preparation of inoculum and fermentation medium
The inoculum was prepared from fresh cecum of three healthy
pigs obtained from Fresh Meat Processing Co., Ltd. (Nakhon Pathom,
Thailand). The cecal contents were pooled, weighed and mixed with
sterile medium in a ratio of 1:1 (w/w). The mixture was homogenized in a household blender for 1 min and strained through four
layers of cheesecloth. The fermentation medium was composed of
2.5 g trypticase peptone, 125 ll micro-mineral solution (132 g/L
CaCl22H2O, 100 g/L MnCl24H2O, 80 g/L FeCl26H2O and 10 g/L
CoCl26H2O), 25 ml buffer solution (4 g/L (NH4)HCO3 and 35 g/L
NaHCO3), 125 ml macro-mineral solution (5.7 g/L Na2HPO4, 6.2 g/L
KH2PO4 and 0.6 g/L Mg47H2O), 1.25 ml resazurin solution (0.1% w/
v) and 33.5 ml reducing solution (6.25 g/L cysteine hydrochloride,
6.25 g/L Na2S9H2O and 40 ml 1 M NaOH) in 1 L of medium (pH 7.2).
2.4.3. In vitro fermentation
In vitro batch fermentation was conducted according to the
method of Lebet, Arrigoni, and Amad (1998), with a few modications. Fermentation was performed in triplicate for each noodle
sample. One hundred mg of pre-digested noodles was added to

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Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

8 ml of fermentation medium in a 20 ml serum bottle. The bottle

was sealed with a butyl rubber stopper and aluminum cap and
the headspace was ushed with N2 for 3 min to maintain anaerobic
conditions. The sample was then hydrated overnight at 4 C. After
equilibrating in a water bath at 37 C for 1 h, 2 ml of inoculum was
added to each bottle and the headspace was ushed again with N2
for 1 min. The bottles were incubated in a shaking water bath (50
strokes/min) at 37 C. Samples of the fermented broth (0.5 ml)
were taken at 24, 36 and 72 h and immediately placed in a freezer
at 20 C to stop fermentation. A control containing no sample was
used as a blank; inulin, which is a completely fermentable substrate, was used as a reference.
2.4.4. Analysis of short-chain fatty acids
SCAF analysis was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The frozen fermentation broth was rapidly
thawed in warm water, centrifuged at 12,522g at 4 C for
30 min and ltered using a 0.45 lm nylon syringe lter. 20 ll of
sample was injected into a Shimadzu HPLC system consisting of
a LC-20AD pump, RID-10A refractive index detector, VertiSep OA
8 lm HPLC column (7.8  300 mm), and a computer with a data
analysis software program (CLASS-VP). The sample was analyzed
in isocratic mode using 0.005 N sulfuric acid as a mobile phase at
a ow rate of 0.8 ml/min. The column temperature was steadily
maintained at 50 C. Acetic, propionic and butyric acids were used
as external standards.
2.5. Statistical analysis
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using Duncans
multiple range test to compare treatment means at p < 0.05. If
not specied, all tests were carried out with three replications.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Water absorption of single-component noodles
Water absorption capacity has a major impact on cooking qualities and textural properties of noodles. The water absorption index
(WAI) of noodles made from single-component rice our was 7.3 g/
g. Noodles made from single-component cross-linked canna starch
exhibited the highest WAI (8.2 g/g), followed by those from native
canna starch (6.8 g/g), retrograded canna starch (5.4 g/g) and retrograded debranched canna starch (2.8 g/g), respectively. The high
WAI of cross-linked starch noodles was attributed to reinforcement of intermolecular bonding of starch molecules inside starch
granules by cross-linking with phosphate ester bonds; hence, the
granules had greater ability to swell. On the other hand, the low
ability to absorb water of noodles made from retrograded debranched starch was likely due to the highly ordered structure that
occurs during incubation of debranched starch under certain conditions. These results suggested that partial replacement of rice

our with cross-linked canna starch or retrograded debranched

canna starch would have a signicant impact on cooking qualities
and textural properties of rice noodles.
3.2. Morphology of dried noodles
Fig. 1 shows the morphologies of raw starches and the upper
surface of dried noodles made from rice our and rice our with
20% canna starch or its derivatives, as observed by light microscopy. Rice starch granules had a much smaller size (210 lm)
as compared with the canna starch granules (10100 lm), and
some of them were clumped together into small lumps. The size
and shape of cross-linked canna starch granules were identical to
those of the native starch (gure not shown). Retrograded and retrograded debranched starches exhibited a non-granular structure
with irregular shapes and rough surface. The particles of
retrograded starch had relatively larger size as compared with retrograded debranched starch.
As shown in Fig. 1, distinctive surface morphologies were
observed among the different noodles. One hundred percent rice
our noodles had a rough surface, with some bubbles distributed
throughout. A similar morphology was found for noodles made
from rice our incorporated with retrograded debranched starch,
but with some different features in that the noodles containing retrograded debranched starch displayed a rougher surface, much
fewer bubbles and numerous small pores. Noodles made from rice
our with native and cross-linked canna starches had a number of
swollen rice starch granules embedded in a smooth surface; canna
starch granules were not observed. The surface of noodles made
from rice our with retrograded starch was rougher than those
containing native and cross-linked canna starches, but smoother
than noodles with retrograded debranched starch; relatively large
pores were also found on the surface. These appearances are
related to the composition as well as the physicochemical properties of the individual starches.
The rough surface of rice our noodles was attributed to the
swollen, unbroken rice starch granules protruding from the
smooth matrix of completely gelatinized starch granules. Rice our
had high gelatinization temperature (73.2 C, as determined by a
differential scanning calorimeter) (Puncha-arnon & Uttapap,
2013) and high pasting temperature (93.5 C, as determined by a
rapid visco analyzer) (Wandee et al., 2014); therefore, some granules still remained in granular form after steaming. The rougher
surface of noodles when 20% of rice our was replaced with
retrograded debranched starch was likely due to the low ability
of retrograded debranched starch to absorb water. Less moist retrograded debranched starch particles would impede heat transfer
to the rice starch granules, and hence reduce the extent of rice
starch gelatinization. Also, small pores that appeared on the noodle
surface were possibly caused by a difference in water-holding
capacity of the two components in the steamed noodle sheet. Pores
were generated in the high water holding areas when the noodle

Table 1
Cooking qualities, textural properties and TDF content of noodles made from rice our and rice our substituted with 20% canna starch and its derivatives.
Noodle sample

Cooking time (min)

Cooking weight (%)

Cooking loss (%)

Tensile strength (mN)

Elongation (%)

Rice our (control)

Native canna starch
Cross-linked starch
Retrograded starch
Retrograded debranched starch

3.0
3.5
3.5
3.5
3.5

132.1b
157.8a
155.0a
156.1a
139.9b

1.3d
1.6c
1.5c
1.8b
2.7a

173.9c
213.8b
242.5a
161.1c
166.5c

80.1b
81.9b
110.0a
84.3b
64.3c

TDF (%, dwb)

Experiment

Calculation

3.0d
4.0c
3.9c
5.1b
7.3a

3.8
2.6
2.5
3.9
5.2

Values with different superscripts in a column differ signicantly (p < 0.05).

Values of cooking qualities and TDF are the mean of triplicate determinations, while the values of textural properties are the mean of ten determinations.

Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

89

3.3. Cooking qualities

Cooking qualities of noodles made from rice our and rice our
incorporated with 20% of canna starch and its derivatives are summarized in Table 1. Cooking time, cooking weight and cooking loss
of noodles made from rice our were 3.0 min, 132.1% and 1.3%,
respectively. Noodles made from rice our replaced with canna
starch and its derivatives had slightly longer cooking time
(3.5 min) and higher cooking loss (1.52.7%). The increase in cooking loss of noodles containing retrograded and retrograded debranched starches was due to the heterogeneous nature of the
mixing components. Although the noodles incorporated with
canna starch and its derivatives displayed statistically higher cooking loss values than the control, the magnitude of difference (less
than 1.4%) was negligible in practical terms. According to the Chinese and Thai standards for starch noodles, cooking loss should be
less than 10% and 9%, respectively (Lii & Chang, 1981; Sisawad &
Chatket, 1989). Except for the noodles incorporated with retrograded debranched starch, cooking weights of noodles with canna
starch and the other two derivatives (155.0157.8%) were signicantly higher than the control. Cooking weight values of the noodles were consistent with the morphologies of the noodles as
shown in Fig. 1, i.e., noodles with a higher degree of gelatinization
could absorb more water. An increase in cooking weight of noodles
prepared from a blend of rice our and canna starch (80:20) has
also been reported (Qazi, Rakshit, Tran, Ullah, and Khan (2014).
Noodles incorporated with retrograded debranched starch had
comparable cooking weight to rice our noodles. This result differed from studies by Aravind, Sissons, Fellows, Blazek, and
Gilbert (2013) and Sozer, Dalg, and Kaya (2007) in which pasta
replaced with 20% of commercial resistant starch type 3 (Novelose
330) and spaghetti enriched with 10% of resistant starch type 3
had higher cooking weight than the control.
3.4. Textural properties

Fig. 2. Concentrations (mmol/L) of acetic acid ( ), propionic acid ( ) and butyric

acid ( ) produced from 100 mg of inulin and indigestible residues of various rice
noodles after 24 h (a), 48 h (b) and 72 h (c) fermentation.

sheet was dried. The smoother surface of noodles containing retrograded starch, as compared with noodles made from pure rice
our, indicated that retrograded starch facilitated the gelatinization of rice starch. Retrograded starch is formed by incubation of
gelatinized starch under specied conditions. During this process,
the intact amylose and amylopectin molecules can re-associate
by H-bond formation. However, the molecular association was
not as strong as in the case of retrograded debranched starch,
due to the highly branched nature of the starch molecules; therefore, it can be more easily gelatinized by steaming and thus promote the gelatinization of surrounding rice starch granules.
Native and cross-linked canna starch also accelerated rice starch
gelatinization because the gelatinization temperatures of native
(70.4 C) and cross-linked canna starch (69.9 C) (Emrat, 2007)
were lower than that of rice our.

As shown in Table 1, tensile strength and elongation values of

rice noodles were 173.9 mN and 80.1%, respectively. Tensile
strengths of noodles replaced with native canna and cross-linked
starches (213.8 and 242.5 mN, respectively) were signicantly
higher, whereas those of noodles with retrograded and retrograded
debranched starch (161.1 and 166.5 mN, respectively) were comparable to the control. Elongation values of noodles supplemented
with canna starch and its derivatives were inconsistent. Noodles
made from rice our, rice our with native canna starch and rice
our with retrograded starch had similar elongation values
(80.1%, 81.9% and 84.3%); noodles containing retrograded debranched starch had a signicantly lower elongation value (64.3%),
while noodles with cross-linked starch (110.0%) displayed much
higher elongation. The effect of the second starch component on
the textural properties of rice noodles was quite complicated, since
it would depend on several factors such as the pasting behavior of
each starch, interaction and compatibility of the two starches,
water absorption and retrogradation abilities of each starch, etc.
The highest tensile strength and elongation was found in rice noodles containing cross-linked canna starch; this was most likely due
to the high degree of gelatinization of both starches, resulting in a
homogeneous mixture of disrupted starch granules stabilized by
cross-linked covalent bonding. Hydrogen bonding between starch
molecules formed during incubation of noodle sheets could also
provide a gel network that strengthened the structure of the noodles. On the other hand, the heterogeneous structure of noodles
containing retrograded debranched starch due to incomplete disruption of starch granules, many small pores, and less association
of leached amylose would contribute to their having the lowest
tensile strength among the tested noodles.

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Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

Table 2
Amounts of indigestible residue (g/50 g noodles), total SCFAs and butyric acid (mmol/50 g dried noodles) in noodle products.
Sample

Indigestible residue (g/50 g noodle)

100% Rice our

20% Native canna starch
20% Cross-linked starch
20% Retrograded starch
20% Retrograded debranched starch

6.8 0.5
7.6 0.3
8.1 0.1
7.8 1.5
10.4 0.2

Total SCFA (mmol/50 g noodle)

Butyric acid (mmol/50 g noodle)

24 h

48 h

72 h

24 h

48 h

72 h

12.5d
14.4c
15.7b
14.7c
17.0a

15.3e
17.8d
19.8b
19.1bc
25.6a

16.4d
19.9c
21.6b
21.6b
28.2a

2.5e
3.1d
3.6b
3.4c
3.8a

3.3e
4.1d
4.6b
4.4b
7.4a

3.4d
4.4c
4.8b
4.7b
7.8a

Values with different superscripts in a column differ signicantly (p < 0.05).

Values of total SCFAs and butyric acid are the mean of triplicate determinations, while the values of indigestible residue are the mean of duplicate determinations.

3.5. Total dietary ber content

Total dietary ber (TDF) contents of uncooked rice noodles
made from rice our and rice our incorporated with canna starch
and its derivatives are shown in Table 1. Incorporation of canna
starch and its derivatives resulted in a signicant increase of TDF
content, from 3.0% to 7.3%. The highest TDF content was found in
noodles containing retrograded debranched starch (7.3%), followed
by retrograded starch (5.1%), while TDF contents of noodles containing canna starch or cross-linked starch were comparable
(4.0%, 3.9%). In Table 1, the TDF values calculated from the ber
contents in raw materials are also given in parentheses. The experimental TDF value of noodles made from rice our was slightly
lower, while those of noodles with canna starch and its derivatives
were signicantly higher than the calculated values. This indicated
that noodle processing could increase or decrease TDF, depending
on the raw material source. The increase of TDF in noodles supplemented with canna starch and its derivatives was most likely due
to the high retrogradability of canna starch. High retrogradation of
canna starch is thought to be due to the combined effect of the following factors: considerably high amylose content (about 30%;
Puncha-arnon et al., 2007); small size of amylose molecules
(1600 dp), with low value of the average number of branch
chains; and high value of the average chain length of amylopectin
(Thitipraphunkul, Uttapap, Piyachomkwan, & Takeda, 2003). The
results were opposite to our previous study on noodles incorporated with cassava pulp and pomelo peel (Wandee et al., 2014),
in which the experimental values were lower than their
corresponding calculated values. In those cases, part of TDF might
be heat-unstable and could be destroyed by noodle processing,
especially during the steaming step.
3.6. In vitro fermentability of noodles
Noodle products were subjected successively to in vitro digestion with a-amylase and amyloglucosidase, and the indigestible
residues were recovered and subsequently fermented by an
in vitro batch system using pig cecal content as inoculum. Concentrations of SCFAs produced from 100 mg of indigestible residue of
inulin, rice noodles and rice noodles containing canna starch and
its derivatives after 24, 48 and 72 h fermentation are shown in
Fig. 2. Inulin is a long-chain prebiotic consisting of a linear series
of -(2 ? 1) fructose units, and typically has a terminal non-reducing glucose (GFn). According to the report of Roberfroid (2004),
inulin is slowly but completely fermented, so it was used as a reference in this study. As shown in Fig. 2a, fermentation of inulin for
24 h produced the lowest SCFAs (9.6 mmol/L), followed by noodles
containing retrograded debranched starch (16.3 mmol/L), while
fermentation of the rest produced comparable amounts of total
SCFAs (18.519.4 mmol/L). Slower fermentation of noodles containing retrograded debranched starch, as compared with other
canna starch samples, was due to the highly ordered structure of
retrograded debranched starch.

Extending the fermentation time to 48 h resulted in a signicant increase in total SCFAs of inulin and noodles containing retrograded debranched starch (Fig. 2b). Noodles incorporated with all
derivatives of canna starches produced signicantly higher
amounts of butyric acid (5.67.2 mmol/L) as compared with rice
noodles (4.9 mmol/L) and noodles containing native canna starch
(5.3 mmol/L) (p < 0.05); noodles with retrograded debranched
starch had the highest amount of butyric acid (7.2 mmol/L). This
circumstance was more pronounced when the fermentation time
was extended to 72 h (Fig. 2c). The high concentration of total
SCFAs was caused by high production of acetic acid. At this fermentation period, rice noodles produced the lowest amount of total
SCFAs when compared with other substrates (p < 0.05). Total SCFAs
from inulin still increased concurrently with increasing fermentation time, and propionic acid was found to be a major component.
Fermentation of noodles containing retrograded debranched starch
produced the highest amount of butyric acid (7.5 mmol/L),
followed by inulin (6.2 mmol/L) and noodles incorporated with
retrograded starch (6.0 mmol/L), respectively. After 72 h of fermentation, the molar ratio of acetic, propionic and butyric acids
produced from noodles containing retrograded debranched starch
was 41:31:28. These results were in agreement with a previous
report, in that RS fermentation generally results in relatively higher
butyric acid production, on the order of 2028 mol%, compared
with about 1015 mol% for non-starch polysaccharides (Brouns
et al., 2002). Therefore, in terms of fermentation products, retrograded debranched starch is a promising prebiotic source since it
can produce high levels of SCFAs as well as high butyric acid.
In humans, the highest fermentation activity is found in the
proximal colon, and declines farther down the gastrointestinal
tract as the availability of substrates decreases (Topping &
Clifton, 2001). Therefore, the distal colon is the site with the most
limited carbohydrate sources of carbon and energy for bacterial
growth. This results in a decrease in SCFAs and an increase in undesirable (even toxic) compounds, such as phenol and NH3, in distal
regions of the colon, resulting in a less healthy colonic environment (Macfarlane, Gibson, & Cummings, 1992). An easily fermentable substrate might be depleted rapidly at the proximal colon,
whereas a substrate that is difcult to ferment could be excreted
with feces; thus, substrates with an appropriate fermentation rate
are preferable. In terms of fermentation rate, inulin would appear
to be ideal since its fermentation was the lowest on the rst day
and increased continuously during the second and third days of
fermentation. On the other hand, fermentation of the other substrates, except the residue of noodles containing retrograded debranched starch, reached nearly maximum values after the rst day.
Therefore, from the perspectives of both fermentation products
and rate of fermentation, retrograded debranched starch is probably the most promising source of prebiotics. The fermentation rate
of this substrate could be adjusted to a slower or faster rate by
altering the production conditions, such as debranching level,
incubation time and temperature, number of incubation cycles,
drying rate and temperature, etc.

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Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

Table 3
Cooking qualities, textural properties and TDF content of noodles made from rice our and rice our substituted with retrograded debranched starch at various levels.
Noodle sample

Cooking
time (min)

Cooking
weight (%)

Cooking
loss (%)

Tensile strength
(mN)

Elongation
(%)

TDF (%, dwb)

Experiment

Calculation

Rice our
20% Retrograded
25% Retrograded
30% Retrograded
35% Retrograded
40% Retrograded

3.0
3.5
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0

132.1ab
139.9a
140.3a
139.5a
136.7ab
124.1b

1.3f
2.7e
3.0d
3.3c
4.1b
4.4a

173.9a
166.5a
137.8b
134.6b
131.0b
131.0b

80.1a
64.3b
55.2c
49.6 c
41.0d
39.2d

3.0e
7.3d
8.0c
9.4b
9.8b
10.6a

3.8
5.2
5.7
6.2
6.8
7.3

debranched
debranched
debranched
debranched
debranched

starch
starch
starch
starch
starch

Values with different superscripts in a column differ signicantly (p < 0.05).

Values of cooking qualities and TDF are the mean of triplicate determinations, while the values of textural qualities are the mean of ten determinations.

Fig. 3. Appearances of cooked rice noodles made from rice our and rice our substituted with retrograded debranched canna starch at various levels, after standing for 0, 10,
20, 30 and 60 min.

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Y. Wandee et al. / Food Chemistry 179 (2015) 8593

3.7. Indigestible residues and SCFA production of noodles

A survey on dietary intake of Thai adolescents in Bangkok
(Uthang, 1990) revealed that the average intakes of dietary ber
were 7.32 g/day in men and 8.88 g/day in women. Many countries
have recommended daily consumption of about 2530 g of ber in
order to keep the bowels healthy. Table 2 shows the amount of
indigestible residue, total SCFAs and butyric acid in one serving
(50 g) of noodle products. The amount of indigestible residue of
rice noodles, determined by in vitro-simulated upper intestinal
tract digestion, was 6.8 g/50 g dried noodles; while for noodles
incorporated with canna starch and its derivatives, the amounts
were between 7.6 and 10.4 g/50 g dried noodles. These indigestible
residues, consisting mainly of resistant starch and ber, were
assumed to be the substrate that passed into the colon. Thus, the
amount of SCFAs produced would depend not only on the fermentability of an individual substrate but also its resistance to digestion
in the small intestine. On the basis of one serving size, noodles containing canna starch and its derivatives produced higher amounts
of total SCFAs and butyric acid than rice our noodles. Noodles
with retrograded debranched starch produced the highest amounts
of total SCFAs and butyric acid. These results conrmed the potential of retrograded debranched starch as a prebiotic source.
3.8. Qualities of noodles incorporated with higher levels of retrograded
debranched starch
The results shown above revealed that incorporation of 20% retrograded debranched canna starch could increase TDF content of
noodles and improve the nutritional benets, in terms of increasing fermentability and butyric acid production, without adversely
affecting the cooking qualities. It was also observed that cooked
noodle strips made from only rice our tended to stick together
when kept for a long period, while noodles containing retrograded
debranched starch did not. Therefore, it was presumed that addition of a higher level of retrograded debranched starch would
not only increase the ber content but also improve the quality
and texture of cooked noodles when keeping after cooking. Accordingly, replacement of retrograded debranched starch in noodles at
25%, 30%, 35% and 40% was studied. The results of cooking quality,
textural properties and TDF content of the noodles obtained are
shown in Table 3. Cooking time of noodles with higher levels of retrograded debranched starch was extended to 4.0 min, while cooking weight was comparable to the control. Cooking loss was
signicantly increased with an increased amount of retrograded
debranched starch; however, the cooking loss of noodles containing the highest level (40%) of retrograded debranched starch was
still less than the limit specied by Thai standards for starch
noodles. The results of textural properties of noodles clearly
revealed that increasing levels of retrograded debranched starch
had a signicantly negative effect on strength and elongation of
the noodles.
Appearances of cooked noodles made from retrograded debranched starch at various levels during keeping at 25 C for up to
60 min are shown in Fig. 3. When left to stand for 10 min, cooked
rice our noodles stuck together, and clumped into a lump of noodle strips when allowed to stand longer (3060 min). Strips of noodles enriched with 20% retrograded debranched starch remained
separate for up to 30 min but tended to stick together after that.
Noodles containing higher levels of retrograded debranched starch
did not stick together even after 60 min. The most important characteristics for cooked starch noodles are texture and mouth feel;
they should remain rm, not sticky, after cooking, and exhibit high
tensile strength, short cooking time and low cooking loss (Tan, Li, &
Tan, 2009). Although the addition of retrograded debranched
starch at levels higher than 20% possessed some benets in terms

of TDF content and continued good appearance of noodles after

standing, the detrimental effect on cooking and textural qualities
was found to be unacceptable. Therefore, weighing the merits
and demerits of these attributes, substitution of rice our with
20% retrograded debranched starch would be the most suitable
level for noodle production.
4. Conclusion
This study demonstrated the potential of using canna starch
and its derivatives to improve the qualities of rice noodles. Crosslinked canna starch can increase tensile strength and elongation,
while retrograded debranched canna starch can increase TDF content and improve nutritional benets in terms of increased butyric
acid production. In vitro experiments revealed that noodles substituted with retrograded debranched canna starch exhibited a slow
fermentation rate; therefore, these noodles are also expected to
be slowly fermentable in vivo and will yield a certain amount of
SCFAs along the distal colon. Due to the high TDF content, acceptable cooking qualities and textural properties, as well as good fermentability, rice noodles substituted with 20% retrograded
debranched starch are recommended as an alternative food choice
for health-conscious consumers.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge nancial support from: the
Thailand Research Fund, via the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. Program (for Miss Yuree Wandee); and the National Research Universities Project and Research Promotion in Higher Education, Ofce
of the Higher Education Commission.
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