The role of biochemical and mechanical disintegration on β-carotene release from steamed sweet potatoes (SSP) and fried sweet potatoes (FSP) during in vitro gastric digestion was investigated. Results revealed that, in the absence of mechanical forces generated by the stomach, biochemical digestion did not have a great effect on the breakdown of cell walls within the sweet potato food matrix and the release of ß-carotene was similar in both SSP and FSP. Cell wall in the plant-food may act as a physical ‘barrier’ towards the action of gastric juice and to the release of nutrients into the gastric digesta. However, FSP underwent quicker softening and collapse during in vitro gastric digestion compared to the compact and denser structure of SSP. This may explain the faster cell wall breakdown and subsequent β-carotene release from FSP cellular matrix than SSP when mechanical forces are applied as in the human gastric simulator (HGS).

研究了在体外胃消化过程中，生化和机械分解作用对蒸制甘薯（SSP）和炸甘薯（FSP）中β-胡萝卜素释放的作用。结果表明，在没有胃产生的机械力的情况下，生化消化对甘薯食物基质中细胞壁的分解没有很大的影响，β-胡萝卜素的释放在SSP和FSP中相似。植物性食物中的细胞壁可能对胃液的作用以及营养物质向胃消化物中的释放起到物理“屏障”作用。然而，FSP在体外经历了更快的软化和塌陷与SSP的紧凑和致密结构相比，其胃消化率更高。这可以解释当在人胃模拟器（HGS）中施加机械力时，与SSP相比，FSP细胞基质的细胞壁分解更快，随后的β-胡萝卜素释放更快。