Chongqing Joywin Natural Products Co., Ltd.

Inulin is a kind of reserved polysaccharide, mainly extracted from plants. There are more than 36,000 plants contains inulin, which include Asteraceae, Campanulaceae and gentianaceae etc. 11 species in dicotyledon also liliaceae and gramineae in monocotyledon. For example, there’s rich inulin contained in jerusalem artichoke tuber, peony tuber and thistle tuber.       Inulin existed in the cell protoplasm with colloidal form. Different with starch, it’s easy to be dissolved in hot water, and will be separated out from water if adding ethyl alcohol; and it do not react with iodine. Inulin is easy to be hydrolyzed to fructose in diluted acid condition, which is the common characteristic of fructosan. Inulin could also be hydrolyzed to fructose by inulase, however it’s lack of this kind of enzyme to hydrolyze inulin in human and animal body. In Chinese inulin industrial production, people usually use the jerusalem artichoke tuber as raw material, remove the protein, gel, crude fiber and mineral substance; extracted by water, through ion exchange, membrane filtration, then spray drying, inulin powder come out.

Expect starch, inulin is another energy storage form in plants, it’s an ideal raw material for functional foods, also a very good raw material for producing FOS, polufructose, high-fructose syrup and crystalline fructose.

Inulin is an excellent fat replacer, when mixed with water perfectly, it appears creamy structure. This made the inulin could replaced the fat easily, also give smooth mouth feel. Inulin could replace the fat to fiber, enhance the emulsifying dispersion, it could replace 30~60% fat in cream paint food production.

Inulin could be used by beneficial bacteria in human intestine tract, especially could multiple bifidobacteria 5 to 10 times. At the same time, the harmful bacteria will be significantly reduced. Inulin could improve the bacterial flora distribution, promote the health, and be regarded as important multiplication factor for bifidobacteria.

Now inulin is widely used in dairy, bakery food, low-fat food, pharmaceutical coating and feed field. In China we could not find the infant milk powder with inulin added, but more and more infant milk powder with inulin added from abroad was imported to China. Undoubted, inulin is harmless to infant. We believe with deep knowledge of inulin, it will be a new star soon in food raw material.