This study investigated the composition of digestible starch and prebiotic properties of taro starch due to different heating treatments. The taro starch has been treated by annealing (24 hrs, 50 °C), heat moisture treatment (moisture 25%, 3 hrs, 110 °C), and autoclaving (15 min, 121 °C) with cooling (24 hrs, 4 °C) for 1, 2, and 3 cycles. Results showed that resistant starch (RS) and slowly digestible starch (SDS) contents in the modified taro starches (MTS) by all heat treatments increased significantly. Furthermore, MTS by autoclaving-cooling two cycles (AC-2C) showed the best prebiotic properties indicated by high resistance in simulated gastric acid (90.19%), high prebiotic effect (2.45), high prebiotic index (1.96) as well as prebiotic activity (0.072) towards Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). This MTS also has high RS (21.34%) and SDS (27.17%) content as well as low digestibility (64.41%). Hence, AC-2C MTS is very prospective to be used as the prebiotic source.
