Preparation and structural characterization of different amylose–flavor molecular inclusion complexes

Flavor microencapsulation has been widely used in foods, medicines, cosmetics, and other fields. The use of amylose-based complexes is receiving increasing attention because they are biodegradable, non-toxic, and biocompatible, and these complexes provide a new way to develop and impart flavors. In this study, with the aim of investigating the properties of amylose–flavor complexes, linear aliphatic alcohols (C 6 –C 9 ) and the aromatic alcohol naphthol were used to prepare inclusion complexes by the sealed heating method in yields ranging from 45 to 50%. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were utilized to investigate the structural characteristics of these inclusion complexes, and it was found that the amylose-n-heptanol inclusion complex was most stable. Furthermore, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy revealed that V-type crystals existed in the amylose–flavor complexes. Moreover, TGA showed that all amylose–flavor inclusion complexes have excellent thermal stability. The encapsulation efficiency of the complexes increased with decreasing chain length, but the encapsulation efficiency of the complexes with the aromatic alcohol naphthol was lower than that of the complexes with some linear alcohols. This indicated that the stereoscopic confirmation of α-naphthol may influence the complexes being formed.