Construction of octenyl succinic anhydride modified porous starch for improving bioaccessibility of β-carotene in emulsions.

Modified porous starch (PS), by introducing octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) moieties, was synthesized successfully, which was applied as an emulsion of β-carotene for the first time. The pores and channels within porous starch provided more possibilities for OSA to modify starch. The ester linkage of OSA modified PS with different degrees of substitution (DS) were confirmed by both C solid-state NMR and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The hydrophobic octenyl succinic and hydrophilic hydroxyl groups of OSA modified PS showed the good emulsifying capability, which could be utilized to prepare β-carotene emulsions. And the bioaccessibility of β-carotene was also enhanced with increasing DS of OSA modified starch. This study not only paves a new way using porous starches for modification of starch, but also offers an attractive alternative for obtaining emulsion-based delivery systems for bioactive components.