Malto-oligosaccharides as critical functional ingredient: a review of their properties, preparation, and versatile applications

Abstract

Malto-oligosaccharides (MOS) are α-1,4 glycosidic linked linear oligosaccharides of glucose, which have a diverse range of functional applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and other industries. They can be used to modify the physicochemical properties of foods thereby improving their quality attributes, or they can be included as prebiotics to improve their nutritional attributes. The degree of polymerization of MOS can be controlled by using specific enzymes, which means their functionality can be tuned for specific applications. In this article, we review the chemical structure, physicochemical properties, preparation, and functional applications of MOS in the food, health care, and other industries. Besides, we offer an overview for this saccharide from the perspective of prospect functional ingredient, which we feel lacks in the current literature. MOS could be expected to provide a novel promising substitute for functional oligosaccharides.

Keywords:

• Malto-oligosaccharides
• functional ingredient
• physicochemical properties
• enzymatic preparation
• versatile applications

Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20221077), China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20220135), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M711367), Excellent Postdoctoral Program of Jiangsu Province (2022ZB490).

Author contributions

Hangyan Ji: Conceptualization, Writing-original draft, Funding acquisition. Jialin Liu: Investigation, Writing-original draft. David Julian McClements: Writing – review & editing. Yuxiang Bai: Review & editing. Zhitao Li: Visualization, Resources. Long Chen: Review & editing. Chao Qiu: Review & editing. Xiaobei Zhan: Writing – review & editing, Validation. Zhengyu Jin: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest is declared for any of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20221077), China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20220135), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M711367), Excellent Postdoctoral Program of Jiangsu Province (2022ZB490).