A Comparison of Microwave-Assisted Heating with Conventional Heating of Sweet Potato <i>(Ipomoea batatas)</i>: Analysis of Monosaccharides and Disaccharides

Microwave-assisted heating has been recently used for extracting nutrient components from food materials. The technique sometimes invokes reactions from nutrient compounds during microwave-irradiation because it activates water molecules to reach a high temperature. The microwave-irradiation produced 5.3 g maltose per 100 g sweat potatoes in 30 s, which was faster than conventional heating (3.9 g maltose per 100 g in 300 s). Fructose level increased with the longer reaction time under microwave-irradiation (from 1.33 g to 1.65 g in 120s), but decreased with a longer reaction time under conventional heating (from 0.99 g to 0.83 g in 1200 s). This study demonstrates the differences in the reactions and products between microwave-irradiation and conventional heating.