Oligosaccharide is a general term for sugars consisting of 2 to 10 monosaccharides linked by glycosidic bonds. Oligosaccharides are generally soluble and widely found in nature. Natural oligosaccharides are synthesized from glycosides with glycosidetransferases; others are enzymatically converted.

Oligosaccharides can be divided according to the different composition of raw materials, such as oligosaccharides, oligofructose and oligogalactose. At present, the largest production and most widely used oligosaccharides are mainly derived from starch, usually called malt oligosaccharides or maltooligosaccharides. Oligosaccharides not only have good adaptability to food processing, but also have a variety of functions beneficial to human health, as a new type of “functional food” raw materials, is increasingly being emphasized.

What kind of sugar is maltotetrasaccharide?

As a kind of straight-chain malt oligosaccharides, straight-chain maltotetrasaccharide refers to a chain oligosaccharide polymer consisting of four α-D-glucopyranose units connected by α-1,4-glycosidic bonds. It is a new kind of functional oligosaccharide, which can be obtained by hydrolyzing starch or dextrin by the corresponding enzyme of straight-chain malt oligosaccharides generation, and it has a wide range of application prospects in various fields.

What is the difference between maltotetrasaccharides?

The sweetness of straight chain maltotetrasaccharide is about one-fifth of that of sucrose. It has a soft taste and helps to improve the quality of various processed food products without increasing the sweetness, and when the dosage ratio is very high, it will not mask the original flavor and aroma of the products.

Malt tetrasaccharide is easily soluble in water, viscosity is higher than sucrose and maltose syrup, it is an excellent ingredient of thickening agent, it has adhesive property, it can prevent crystals from precipitation, and it is suitable for candies, pastries, beverages, and cold beverages.

At the same time, malt tetrasaccharide stabilizes foam well, has excellent emulsification properties, promotes product molding and adjusts the role of product organization, inhibits starch aging and improves the organoleptic quality of food.

Water retention effect is better than sucrose under low humidity condition, and hygroscopicity is lower than sucrose or maltose syrup in high humidity, it can release or absorb water stably, so it can be used as moisture regulator of baking and puffed food. It can be used as moisture regulator for bakery and puffed food. It is easy to be powdered and has significant inhibition effect on the phenomenon of “sand return” of chocolate. In addition, it also has the properties of slowing down the regrowth of starch, improving the anti-melting performance and increasing the expansion rate of ice cream.

Malt tetrasaccharide has good resistance to acid salts and heat, and is not easy to browning, digestion and absorption in the human body is very good, can be used as food raw materials for children, patients and athletes. In general, tetrasaccharide is an ideal food base material.

Application in trans-intestinal nutrients

In recent years, with the improvement of material and cultural standards, people pay more attention to the importance of nutrition. Trans-intestinal nutrient is a kind of nutrient specially designed for people with low digestion and absorption function and low nutritional status. Because the nutrient is a nutrient based on trans-oral and trans-intestinal nutrition for the purpose of supplementation, it can stimulate appetite and regulate gastrointestinal function, and it is safe and easy to administer, it has been widely used.

However, the sugars in trans-intestinal nutrients are mostly monosaccharides or disaccharides such as glucose, sucrose, maltose, etc. However, since these sugars have high osmotic pressure when used and can easily cause osmotic diarrhea, dextrins, which regulate osmotic pressure, are all added at the same time.

It has been found that maltotetrasaccharide can be used as an effective source of sugar and energy for nutrients due to its low branching structure and the fact that it is a straight-chain oligosaccharide with low osmolality, capable of being broken down and metabolized with high efficiency.

In addition to the above food applications, high-purity straight-chain maltotetrasaccharide is also a unique biochemical reagent used to study the hydrolysis pattern of various starches, and can also be used in medicine to determine the activity of α-amylase in human serum and urine, and therefore also has the prospect of application in the field of modern analysis, automatic testing and so on.

Physiological effects of maltotetrasaccharide

The special physiological effects of straight chain maltotetrasaccharide are also worthy of attention:

(1) After ingesting maltotetrasaccharide, it is hydrolyzed by α-glucosidase in the small intestine, and synthesizes new glycogen in the blood very rapidly, but it does not lead to the rapid increase of blood sugar, and the osmotic pressure is low, which can provide energy for the human body continuously, and it can be used to develop the therapeutic diet for patients with special diseases such as nephropathy and pancreatectomy, and also to develop functional sports drinks to improve the athletes’ physical endurance.

(2)It can significantly inhibit the growth and proliferation of intestinal spoilage bacteria (e.g. Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium difficile, Enterobacteriaceae, etc.), and can be used to develop nutritional enhancers to maintain intestinal health.

(3)Difficult to be fermented and utilized by Streptococcus mutans or yeast in the oral cavity, it can effectively avoid the formation of tartar on the surface of teeth by high molecular dextran (non-water-soluble), and it has the function of anticaries.

(4) As a precursor of oligosaccharide phosphate synthesis, it promotes calcium absorption and can be used as a nutritional supplement to prevent osteoporosis in human body. Provide signals to promote the maturation and transit of disaccharidase, thus easy to digest and absorb, and also promote the differentiation of small intestinal epithelial cells.

Research Progress on Maltotetrasaccharide

Since the 1980s, on the basis of the continuous achievements in maltotetrasaccharide enzyme technology, many large-scale food, biochemical, pharmaceutical and other enterprises or research institutes in Japan have invested a lot of manpower and material resources, and continuously researched and developed a variety of oligosaccharides, among which the two largest and most influential ones in the production of maltotetrasaccharides are the two major enterprises of the Nippon Foods Chemical Company Limited and the Hayashi Harimoto Bio-Chemical Company Limited. At present, a large amount of relevant literature has been published both at home and abroad. (Source: pubmed)

In terms of patent applications, there are currently 40 patents with the name of maltotetrasaccharide, including 11 Chinese patents and 2 by BaoLinBao Biological Co. Ltd. (a preparation method of low viscosity, high maltotetrasaccharide content oligomaltose syrup; a preparation process of oligomaltose syrup with maltotetrasaccharide content of ≥60%) (Data source: China Knowledge)

Due to the low production efficiency of straight-chain malt oligosaccharides and the difficulty of isolation and purification, the price is expensive, resulting in the functional value and industrial potential of straight-chain maltotetrasaccharides not being fully studied and applied. However, from the current relevant research results, whether it is the study of malt oligosaccharides generating enzymes, or various enterprises on the industrialization of malt tetrasaccharide production process refinement, I believe that the future will continue to apply the malt tetrasaccharide of the new products come out.

Meanwhile, the success of the industrialized production of maltotetrasaccharide will not only provide a new sugar source for China’s pharmaceutical, food, fermentation and other fields, but also promote the development of nutrition, health care and functional food.