Starch separation from plant materials

The separation and purification of starch granules from plant extracts (see O Sect. 2 in O Chap. 6.2) and the fractionation of amylose and amylopectin is given in O Sect. 5 in O Chap. 6.2. The separation of cellulose and hemicelluloses from plant materials and from each other is given inO Sect. 3.2 inO Chap. 6.3. 

The starch granules so readily isolated from the rest of the plant material by relatively simple, mechanical-separation operations are of surprisingly high purity. For example, commercial-grade corn-starch... 

It is likely that in the near future, starch, oilseed, or leguminous plants will be used to produce PHAs. Other plant materials such as cellulose and starch are already used to make plastics or plastic-like materials. Hemicelluloses have been used directly and/or converted to organic acids for PHA production at a laboratory scale. Thus any waste from the separation of PHA from plants could be hydrolyzed, fermented to lactic, acetic, and propionic acids, and then fed into bioreactors for the production of specialty PHAs. Polylactides and other polymers of organic acids could be produced in the same plant as could polysaccharides. Plant materials may become a major source of plastic materials in the next century with PHAs leading the way. 

---