Because of the significant increase in the maple syrup production, developing new maple-based products through innovation, using maple products in excess and those downgraded, became necessary. This is even more important while the maple syrup industry is currently facing major challenges related to (a) the competition from other sweeteners, (b) the current trend to reduce the consumption of sugar and (c) the lack of initiative for the development of new products. In this context, a bioconversion process, based on levansucrase-catalyzed transfructosylation reaction, has been developed for the biogeneration of �-(2-6)-fructooligosaccharides (FOSs) and polysaccharides, levans, from maple products. Levansucrase catalyzes the transfer of fructosyl group of sucrose into the growing chain of polymers through transfructosylation reaction. Interestingly, the formation of levan can be quantitatively replaced with the formation of �-(2-6)-FOSs in the presence of various acceptors. FOSs are of increasing interest as �functional sweeteners� because of their low caloric value and their ability to stimulate the growth/activity of beneficial colonic bacteria. Because of the physical and the biological properties of levans as antitumor and immune cell activating agents, they have a variety of potential applications. Maple products, being mainly composed of sucrose, are the ideal media for levansucrase. In addition, the monosaccharides present in the low-grade maple products can be used as acceptors by levansucrase. Such bioconversion of low-grade maple products into high value-added ones enriched with FOSs is expected to overcome their defects and broaden their applications. The presentation will focus on our recent �proof-of principle� results illustrating the feasibility of developing new maple-based products through levansucrase-catalyzed transfructosylation reaction. Our investigations have revealed that the use of 30 brix-maple syrup results in the highest yield and productivity as compared to sap and 15/66-brix syrups. Effects of selected parameters and their interactions on the yield and the end-product profiles will be discussed.

Enzymatic enrichment and biogeneration of fructooligosaccharides and levans from maple products through transfructosylation reaction

247th National Meeting (2014)

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