Synthesis of Octenyl Succinic Derivative of Mechanically Activated Indica Rice Starch

Abstract Indica rice starch was mechanically activated by ball milling and then esterified by octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) in aqueous slurry systems. The process of esterification was studied with respect to the time of mechanical activation, OSA/starch ratio, temperature, pH, starch slurry concentration and reaction time. The effects of these reaction conditions were evaluated on the basis of degree of substitution (DS) and reaction efficiency (RE). The results indicated that mechanical activation could enhance the reaction of OSA and starch. The DS and RE of OSA starch increased sharply when the time of mechanical activation increased from 0 h to 10 h, after which it was not significantly affected until 50h. The suitable conditions for the synthesis of OSA starch from Indica rice starch that was mechanically activated for 10 h (MAIS10) were an OSA/starch ratio 3%, temperature 35°C, pH 8.5, starch slurry concentration 12.5% and reaction time 3h. For native Indica rice starch (NIS), all conditions were identical to MAIS10 except for the starch slurry concentration of 40% and reaction time of 4 h. The maximum DS and RE of OSA‐MAIS10 (0.02037, 88.03%) was higher than that of OSA‐NIS (0.01700, 73.46%) at OSA/starch ratio 3%. The esterification of MAIS10 with OSA showed a low sensitivity to pH and a higher stability than OSA‐NIS. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the modified OSA starches did not show any detectable change in the morphological structural characteristics. The esterification between OSA and starch was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy.