The cracking of the defatted corn germ (thick corn meal), co-product from corn industry processing, to obtain starch, proteins and fiber fractions using physical and chemical methods has been investigated. The chemical separation of the thick corn meal with sodium disulfide and ethanol solutions was satisfactory, since it had product starch fraction with acceptable yield. However, the physical separation (boll mill) was not successful, because it has not yielded enriched fractions of starch and proteins. Both thick corn meal and all the fractions obtained were characterized by HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) and Thermal Analysis (TG, DTG and DSC). The thick corn meal is composed of more than 50% of starch (CLAE). It has showed mass loss of 52% between 270 - 450ºC (TG and DTG). The kinetic parameters from DSC curves exhibited for gelatinization process of the starch fractions and desnaturation process of the protein fractions are both endothermic events having enthalpy and activation energy different values.
corn; germ; cracking; thermal analysis and HPLC
