An Improved Process for Isolation of Corn Fiber Gum

Sequential alkaline extraction and alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) bleaching have been used to prepare corn fiber gum in yields ranging from 21 to 40%, depending on the pH of the extraction medium. The pH was adjusted by using different ratios of NaOH and Ca(OH)₂ The whitest product was obtained after AHP bleaching of the extract obtained using the lowest pH value. In order for the product gum to give its characteristic clear and low viscosity solutions, it was necessary to remove starch from the corn fiber substrate using α-amylase. The water-insoluble hemicellulose A fraction, a minor component, was removed by neutralizing AHP-treated extracts before ethanol precipitation of the useful hemicellulose B (corn fiber gum) fraction. At ambient temperature, AHP bleaching was near optimal after ≈2 hr under the processing conditions used. High ratios of arabinose (39%) to xylose (50%) were present in the corn fiber gum extracted under various alkaline conditions, and the H₂O₂ processing step did not significantly alter these ratios. The same low levels of galactose (7%) and glucuronic acid (4%) were present regardless of the extraction conditions. Molecular mass of the corn fiber gum preparations ranged from 2.78 × 10⁵ for the material extracted with Ca(OH)₂ to 3.94 × 10⁵ for the material extracted with NaOH. Molecular mass was unaffected by the H₂O₂ present in the second processing step. As expected for a carbohydrate polymer with a rather low uronic acid content, solution viscosities were unaffected by the presence of salt.