Facile Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Amylose–Fatty Acid Inclusion Complexes

Amylose-fatty acid inclusion complexes can be easily prepared by simple mixing in hot aqueous solutions. Above a critical chain length (C6) of the fatty acid insoluble complexes between amylose and each fatty acid (C8, C10, C12, C14, C16) were precipitated from the solution, and characterized by FT-IR, XRD, DSC, and SEC. The presence of the characteristic (CO) FT-IR absorption peak at 1 710 cm(-1) confirmed the inclusion of the fatty acids inside the amylose helix. XRD showed the same characteristic features of the V amylose single helical structure. Both SEC and DSC revealed that longer fatty acids can form inclusion complexes with amylose fractions having higher degree of polymerization, leading to greater yields, and higher thermal stability (higher melting temperature and enthalpy) of the amylose-complexes.