A comparison of the hydrolysis of sweet potato starch with beta-amylase and infrared radiation allows prediction of reducing sugar production

Summary The apparent reaction rate constants (k) of the reaction that generates reducing sugar (presented as mg maltose equivalents) from raw sweet potato starch by using β-amylase were determined by varying enzyme concentration, starch concentration and pH. The Arrhenius plot of the k-value reached a peak at approximately 86 °C; the activation energy and frequency factor were also determined. Moreover, the amount of reducing sugar produced in sweet potato heated by infrared irradiation was estimated by using the values of k and the kinetic parameters. The calculated amounts of reducing sugar produced generally agreed with the experimental values. These results indicate that the amount of reducing sugar produced in heat-treated sweet potato can be predicted by the methodology described in this study.