Comparative Study of the Emulsifying Properties of a Homologous Series of Long-Chain 6′-O-Acylmaltose Esters

Emulsifiers derived from renewable resources such as sucrose and fatty acids are high volume commodity chemicals and currently produced by traditional chemical synthesis techniques that lack the capacity to form the most desirable monoesters (of sucrose) in a selective and efficient fashion. The development of new emulsifiers (surfactants) from alternate, structurally simpler but nevertheless abundant disaccharides such as maltose represents a possible solution to this problem. Herein, we report the facile enzymatic preparation of a homologous series of 6′-O-acylmaltose esters and an in-depth evaluation of them revealing that their surfactant properties and thermal stabilities are largely determined by the length of the fatty acid chain. In the first such comparison, we show that the foaming and emulsifying effects of certain of these maltose monoesters are superior to those of their sucrose-derived and commercially exploited counterparts. As such, maltose esters have considerable potential as emulsifiers for use in, for example, the food industry.This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant 21617327), the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (Grant 31700670), the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (Grant 2017A030313202), the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Program (Grant 2016B020204002), and the Pearl River Scholar Program of Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China