Correlation analysis of starch anti-digestive properties, prebiotic properties and geographic and climate features of Shanxi foxtail millet from three different latitude regions.

BACKGROUND

Foxtail millet has shown significant efficacy in maintaining metabolic homeostasis. Starch accounts for 60-70% of foxtail millet dry weight, and is likely to play a pivotal role in the metabolic homeostasis-maintaining effect. Therefore, the in-depth exploration of foxtail millet starch is helpful for its wide application in the field of food and medicine homology.

RESULTS

In this study, we used the response surface methodology to screen and found that 'NaOH concentration: 2.22 g L, extraction time: 2.17 h, extraction temperature: 30.1 °C' was the best condition for foxtail millet starch extraction. Further analysis showed that the proportion of resistant starch in millet starch was more than 590 g kg, and it decreased significantly after thermal processing. Furthermore, foxtail millet starch significantly promoted the growth of probiotics Lactobacillus plantarum and Bacillus subtilis, while there was no significant effect on pathogenic bacteria. The correlation study revealed that the proliferation of probiotics was positively correlated with the resistant starch content, and the amount of resistant starch showed a direct association with the annual sunshine exposure duration and the latitude of the millet's geographical origin.

CONCLUSION

These results highlighted that foxtail Millet grown at higher latitudes and exposed to longer annual sunshine duration has a higher content of resistant starch, which is more conducive to promoting the growth of beneficial gut bacteria. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.