Starch granules, amylopectin

Kerr181 has suggested that treatment of maize starch granules with 0.1 to 0.15 N sulfuric acid results in preferential degradation of the amylopectin,... 

Pea starch granules are oval, sometimes fissured, with a diameter of 20-40 ym (13). Molecular and structural characteristics of the two main components of field pea starch—amylose and amylopectin—are important in determining functional properties (25,26). Smooth field pea starch concentrate contains 97.2% starch of which 30.3-37.8% is amylose (9,23,25-27), and wrinkled pea starch concentrate contains 94.8% starch, which is 64% amylose (26). The gelatinization temperature of smooth pea starch is between 64 to 69 C, and that of wrinkled pea starch is greater than 99 C to 115 C. Gelatinization temperature depends on maturity of field pea seed and amylose content (26,27). 

Birefringence (or double refraction) is the decomposition of a light ray into two rays when it passes through certain types of crystalline material. This occurs only when the material is anisotropic, that is, the material has different characteristics in different directions. Amylose and amylopectin polymers are organized into a radially anisotropic, semicrystalline unit in the starch granule. This radial anisotropy is responsible for the distinctive... 

Maltese cross (Blanshard, 1979). The crystallinity of starch is caused essentially by amylopectin pol)Tner interactions (Banks and Greenwood, 1975 Biliaderis, 1998 Donald, 2004 Hizukuri, 1996). An illustration of currently accepted starch granule structure is given in Fig. 5.5. It is believed that the outer branches of amylopectin molecules interact to arrange themselves into "crystallites" forming crystalline lamellae within the granule (Fig. 5.5 Tester et al., 2004). A small number of amylose polymers may also interact with amylopectin crystallites. This hypothetical structure has been derived based on the cluster model of amylopectin (Hizukuri, 1986 Robin et ah, 1974 Fig. 5.1). 

Starch granules are composed of two types of a-glucan, amylose and amylopectin, which represent approximately 98-99% of the dry weight. The ratio of the two polysaccharides varies according to the botanical origin of the starch. 

Figure 4.3 The building block structure of potato amylopectin clusters. Branched building blocks (encircled) are mainly found inside amorphous lamellae (A) of semi-crystalline rings in starch granules. Double helices (symbolized as cylinders) extend from the building blocks into the crystalline lamellae (C). Enlargements of a double helix segment, in which the single strands are parallel and left-handed, and a building block are shown to the right.

Hizukuri, S. (1985). Relationship between the distribution of the chain length of amylopectin and the crystalline structure of starch granules. Carbohydr. Res., 141,295-306. 

Jane, J. L., Xu, A., Radosavljevic, M., Seib, P. A. (1992). Location of amylose in normal starch granules. 1. Susceptibility of amylose and amylopectin to cross-linking reagents. Cereal Chem., 69,405 09. 

Noda, T., Takigawa, S., Matsuura-Endo, C., Kim, S. -J., Hashimoto, N., Yamauchi, H., Hanashiro, I., Takeda, Y. (2005). Physicochemical properties and amylopectin structures of large, small, and extremely small potato starch granules. Carbohydr. Polym., 60,245-251. 

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