Starch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting

of a large number of glucose units joined by
glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is
produced by all green plants as an energy store.
It is the most common carbohydrate in the
human diet and is contained in large amounts
in such staple foods as potatoes, wheat, maize
(corn), rice, and cassava.

Pure starch is a white, tasteless and odorless

powder that is insoluble in cold water or alcohol. It consists of two types of
molecules: the linear and helical amylose and the branched amylopectin. Depending
on the plant, starch generally contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80%
amylopectin by weight.[1] Glycogen, the glucose store of animals, is a more
branched version of amylopectin.

Starch is processed to produce many of the sugars in processed foods. Dissolving

starch in warm water gives wheatpaste, which can be used as a thickening,
stiffening or gluing agent. The biggest industrial non-food use of starch is as
adhesive in the papermaking process.

[edit] Name

The word "starch" is derived from Middle English sterchen, meaning to stiffen.
"amylum" is Latin for starch, from the Greek , "amylon" which means "not
ground at a mill". The root amyl is used in biochemistry for several compounds
related to starch.

[edit] History

Starch grains from the rhizomes of Typha (cattails, bullrushes) as flour have been
identified from grinding stones in Europe dating back to 30,000 years ago. [2]

Pure extracted wheat starch paste was used in Ancient Egypt possibly to glue
papyrus.[3] The extraction of starch is first described in the Natural History of Pliny
the Elder around AD 77-79.[4] Romans used it also in cosmetic creams, to powder
the hair and to thicken sauces. Persians and Indians used it to make dishes similar
to gothumai wheat halva. Rice starch as surface treatment of paper has been used in
paper production in China, from 700 AD onwards.[5]

In addition to starchy plants consumed directly, 66 million tonnes of starch were

being produced per year world-wide by 2008. In the EU this was around 8.5 million
tonnes, with around 40% being used for industrial applications and 60% for food
uses, [6] most of the latter as glucose syrups.[7]

[edit] Energy store of plants

In photosynthesis, plants use light energy to produce glucose from carbon dioxide.
The glucose is stored mainly in the form of starch granules, in plastids such as
chloroplasts and especially amyloplasts. Toward the end of the growing season,
starch accumulates in twigs of trees near the buds. Fruit, seeds, rhizomes, and
tubers store starch to prepare for the next growing season.

Glucose is soluble in water, hydrophilic, binds much water and then takes up much
space; glucose in the form of starch, on the other hand, is not soluble and can be
stored much more compactly.

Glucose molecules are bound in starch by the easily hydrolyzed alpha bonds. The
same type of bond is found in the animal reserve polysaccharide glycogen. This is in
contrast to many structural polysaccharides such as chitin, cellulose and
peptidoglycan, which are bound by beta bonds and are much more resistant to
hydrolysis.

[edit] Biosynthesis

Plants produce starch by first converting glucose 1-phosphate to ADP-glucose using

the enzyme glucose-1-phosphate adenylyltransferase. This step requires energy in
the form of ATP. The enzyme starch synthase then adds the ADP-glucose via a 1,4-
alpha glycosidic bond to a growing chain of glucose residues, liberating ADP and
creating amylose. Starch branching enzyme introduces 1,6-alpha glycosidic bonds
between these chains, creating the branched amylopectin. The starch debranching
enzyme isoamylase removes some of these branches. Several isoforms of these
enzymes exist, leading to a highly complex synthesis process. [8]

Glycogen and amylopectin have the same structure, but the former has about one
branch point per ten 1,4-alpha bonds, compared to about one branch point per
thirty 1,4-alpha bonds in amylopectin.[9] Amylopectin is synthesized from ADP-
glucose while mammals and fungi synthesize glycogen from UDP-glucose; for most
cases, bacteria synthesize glycogen from ADP-glucose (analogous to starch).[10]

[edit] Properties

[edit] Structure

While amylose was traditionally thought to be completely unbranched, it is now

known that some of its molecules contain a few branch points. [11] Although in
absolute mass only about one quarter of the starch granules in plants consist of
amylose, there are about 150 times more amylose molecules than amylopectin
molecules. Amylose is a much smaller molecule than amylopectin.

Starch molecules arrange themselves in the plant in semi-crystalline granules. Each

plant species has a unique starch granular size: rice starch is relatively small (about
2m) while potato starches have larger granules (up to 100m).

Starch becomes soluble in water when heated. The granules swell and burst, the
semi-crystalline structure is lost and the smaller amylose molecules start leaching
out of the granule, forming a network that holds water and increasing the mixture's
viscosity. This process is called starch gelatinization. During cooking the starch
becomes a paste and increases further in viscosity. During cooling or prolonged
storage of the paste, the semi-crystalline structure partially recovers and the starch
paste thickens, expelling water. This is mainly caused by retrogradation of the
amylose. This process is responsible for the hardening of bread or staling, and for
the water layer on top of a starch gel (syneresis).

Some cultivated plant varieties have pure amylopectin starch without amylose,
known as waxy starches. The most used is waxy maize, others are glutinous rice and
waxy potato starch. Waxy starches have less retrogradation, resulting in a more
stable paste. High amylose starch, amylomaize, is cultivated for the use of its gel
strength and for use as a resistant starch (a starch that resists digestion) in food
products.

[edit] Hydrolysis

The enzymes that break down or hydrolyze starch into the constituent sugars are
known as amylases.

Alpha-amylases are found in plants and in animals. Human saliva is rich in

amylase, and the pancreas also secretes the enzyme. Individuals from populations
with a high-starch diet tend to have more amylase genes than those with low-starch
diets;[12] chimpanzees have very few amylase genes.[12] It is possible that turning to
a high-starch diet was a significant event in human evolution.[13]

Beta-amylase cuts starch into maltose units. This process is important in the
digestion of starch and is also used in brewing, where amylase from the skin of seed
grains is responsible for converting starch to maltose (Malting, Mashing).[citation
needed]

[edit] Dextrinization

If starch is subjected to dry heat, it breaks down to form dextrins, also called
"pyrodextrins" in this context. This break down process is known as dextrinization.
(Pyro)dextrins are mainly yellow to brown in color and dextrinization is partially
responsible for the browning of toasted bread. [citation needed]

[edit] Chemical tests

Main article: Iodine test

Iodine solution is used to test for starch; a dark blue color indicates the presence of
starch. The details of this reaction are not yet fully known, but it is thought that the
iodine (I 3 and I 5 ions) fit inside the coils of amylose, the charge transfers between
the iodine and the starch, and the energy level spacings in the resulting complex
correspond to the absorption spectrum in the visible light region. The strength of the
resulting blue color depends on the amount of amylose present. Waxy starches with
little or no amylose present will color red.

Starch indicator solution consisting of water,

starch and iodine is often used in redox titrations:
in the presence of an oxidizing agent the solution
turns blue, in the presence of reducing agent the
blue color disappears because triiodide (I 3 ) ions
break up into three iodide ions, disassembling the
starch-iodine complex. A 0.3% w/w solution is the
standard concentration for a starch indicator. It is
made by adding 3 grams of soluble starch to 1 liter of heated water; the solution is
cooled before use (starch-iodine complex becomes unstable at temperatures above
35 C).

Each species of plant has a unique type of starch granules in granular size, shape
and crystallization pattern. Under the microscope, starch grains stained with iodine
illuminated from behind with polarized light show a distinctive Maltese cross effect
(also known as extinction cross and birefringence).

[edit] Food

Starch is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet and is contained in
many staple foods. The major sources of starch intake worldwide are the cereals
(rice, wheat, and maize) and the root vegetables (potatoes and cassava).[14] Many
other starchy foods are grown, some only in specific climates, including acorns,
arrowroot, arracacha, bananas, barley, breadfruit, buckwheat, canna, colacasia,
katakuri, kudzu, malanga, millet, oats, oca, polynesian arrowroot, sago, sorghum,
sweet potatoes, rye, taro, chestnuts, water chestnuts and yams, and many kinds of
beans, such as favas, lentils, mung beans, peas, and chickpeas.

Widely used prepared foods containing starch are bread, pancakes, cereals, noodles,
pasta, porridge and tortilla.

Digestive enzymes have problems digesting crystalline structures. Raw starch will
digest poorly in the duodenum and small intestine, while bacterial degradation will
take place mainly in the colon. When starch is cooked, the digestibility is increased.
Hence, before humans started using fire, eating grains was not a very useful way to
get energy.

Starch gelatinization during cake baking can be impaired by sugar competing for
water, preventing gelatinization and improving texture.

[edit] Starch industry

The starch industry extracts and refines starches from seeds, roots and tubers, by
wet grinding, washing, sieving and drying. Today, the main commercial refined
starches are cornstarch, tapioca, wheat and potato starch. To a lesser extent, sources
include rice, sweet potato, sago and mung bean. Historically, Florida arrowroot was
also commercialized. To this day, starch is extracted from more than 50 types of
plants.

Untreated starch requires heat to thicken or gelatinize. When a starch is pre-cooked,

it can then be used to thicken instantly in cold water. This is referred to as a
pregelatinized starch.

[edit] Starch sugars

Starch can be hydrolyzed into simpler carbohydrates by acids, various enzymes, or
a combination of the two. The resulting fragments are known as dextrins. The extent
of conversion is typically quantified by dextrose equivalent (DE), which is roughly
the fraction of the glycosidic bonds in starch that have been broken.

These starch sugars are by far the most common starch based food ingredient and
are used as sweetener in many drinks and foods. They include:

Maltodextrin, a lightly hydrolyzed (DE 1020) starch product used as a bland-

tasting filler and thickener.
Various glucose syrups (DE 3070), also called corn syrups in the US, viscous
solutions used as sweeteners and thickeners in many kinds of processed foods.
Dextrose (DE 100), commercial glucose, prepared by the complete hydrolysis of
starch.
High fructose syrup, made by treating dextrose solutions with the enzyme
glucose isomerase, until a substantial fraction of the glucose has been
converted to fructose. In the United States, high fructose corn syrup is the
principal sweetener used in sweetened beverages because fructose has better
handling characteristics, such as microbiological stability, and more consistent
sweetness/flavor. One kind of high fructose corn syrup, HFCS-55, is typically
sweeter than regular sucrose because it is made with more fructose, while the
sweetness of HFCS-42 is on par with sucrose. [15][16]
Sugar alcohols, such as maltitol, erythritol, sorbitol, mannitol and
hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, are sweeteners made by reducing sugars.

[edit] Modified starches

A modified starch is a starch that has been chemically modified to allow the starch
to function properly under conditions frequently encountered during processing or
storage, such as high heat, high shear, low pH, freeze/thaw and cooling.

The modified food starches are E coded according to the International Numbering
System for Food Additives (INS):[17]

1400 Dextrin
1401 Acid-treated starch
1402 Alkaline-treated starch
1403 Bleached starch
1404 Oxidized starch
 1405 Starches, enzyme-treated
1410 Monostarch phosphate
1412 Distarch phosphate
1413 Phosphated distarch phosphate
1414 Acetylated distarch phosphate
1420 Starch acetate
1422 Acetylated distarch adipate
1440 Hydroxypropyl starch
1442 Hydroxypropyl distarch phosphate
1443 Hydroxypropyl distarch glycerol
1450 Starch sodium octenyl succinate
1451 Acetylated oxidized starch

INS 1401, 1402, 1403 and 1405 are in the EU food ingredients without an E-number.
Typical modified starches for technical applications are cationic starches,
hydroxyethyl starch and carboxymethylated starches.

[edit] Use as food additive

As an additive for food processing, food starches are typically used as thickeners
and stabilizers in foods such as puddings, custards, soups, sauces, gravies, pie
fillings, and salad dressings, and to make noodles and pastas.

Gummed sweets such as jelly beans and wine gums are not manufactured using a
mold in the conventional sense. A tray is filled with native starch and leveled. A
positive mold is then pressed into the starch leaving an impression of 1000 or so
jelly beans. The jelly mix is then poured into the impressions and put into a stove to
set. This method greatly reduces the number of molds that must be manufactured.

Resistant starch is starch that escapes digestion in the small intestine of healthy
individuals. High amylose starch from corn has a higher gelatinization temperature
than other types of starch and retains its resistant starch content through baking,
mild extrusion and other food processing techniques. It is used as an insoluble
dietary fiber in processed foods such as bread, pasta, cookies, crackers, pretzels and
other low moisture foods. It is also utilized as a dietary supplement for its health
benefits. Published studies have shown that Type 2 resistant corn helps to improve
insulin sensitivity,[18] increases satiety [19] and improves markers of colonic
function. [20] It has been suggested that resistant starch contributes to the health
benefits of intact whole grains.[21]
In the pharmaceutical industry, starch is also used as an excipient, as tablet
disintegrant or as binder.

[edit] Industrial applications

[edit] Papermaking

Papermaking is the largest non-food application

for starches globally, consuming millions of metric
tons annually.[6] In a typical sheet of copy paper
for instance, the starch content may be as high as
8%. Both chemically modified and unmodified
starches are used in papermaking. In the wet part
of the papermaking process, generally called the
wet-end, the starches used are cationic and have a positive charge bound to the
starch polymer. These starch derivatives associate with the anionic or negatively
charged paper fibers / cellulose and inorganic fillers. Cationic starches together
with other retention and internal sizing agents help to give the necessary strength
properties to the paper web formed in the papermaking process (wet strength), and
to provide strength to the final paper sheet (dry strength).

In the dry end of the papermaking process, the paper web is rewetted with a starch
based solution. The process is called surface sizing. Starches used have been
chemically, or enzymatically depolymerized at the paper mill or by the starch
industry (oxidized starch). The size - starch solutions are applied to the paper web
by means of various mechanical presses (size presses). Together with surface sizing
agents the surface starches impart additional strength to the paper web and
additionally provide water hold out or "size" for superior printing properties. Starch
is also used in paper coatings as one of the binders for the coating formulations
which include a mixture of pigments, binders and thickeners. Coated paper has
improved smoothness, hardness, whiteness and gloss and thus improves printing
characteristics.

[edit] Corrugated board adhesives

Corrugated board adhesives are the next largest application of non-food starches
globally. Starch glues are mostly based on unmodified native starches, plus some
additive such as borax and caustic soda. Part of the starch is gelatinized to carry the
slurry of uncooked starches and prevent sedimentation. This opaque glue is called a
SteinHall adhesive. The glue is applied on tips of the fluting. The fluted paper is
pressed to paper called liner. This is then dried under high heat, which causes the
rest of the uncooked starch in glue to swell/gelatinize. This gelatinizing makes the
glue a fast and strong adhesive for corrugated board production.

[edit] Clothing starch

Clothing or laundry starch is a liquid that is prepared by mixing a vegetable starch

in water (earlier preparations also had to be boiled), and is used in the laundering of
clothes. Starch was widely used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries to stiffen
the wide collars and ruffs of fine linen which surrounded the necks of the well-to-
do. During the 19th century and early 20th century, it was stylish to stiffen the
collars and sleeves of men's shirts and the ruffles of girls' petticoats by applying
starch to them as the clean clothes were being ironed. Aside from the smooth, crisp
edges it gave to clothing, it served practical purposes as well. Dirt and sweat from a
person's neck and wrists would stick to the starch rather than to the fibers of the
clothing, and would easily wash away along with the starch. After each laundering,
the starch would be reapplied. Today, the product is sold in aerosol cans for home
use.

[edit] Other

Another large non-food starch application is in the construction industry, where

starch is used in the gypsum wall board manufacturing process. Chemically
modified or unmodified starches are added to the stucco containing primarily
gypsum. Top and bottom heavyweight sheets of paper are applied to the
formulation, and the process is allowed to heat and cure to form the eventual rigid
wall board. The starches act as a glue for the cured gypsum rock with the paper
covering, and also provide rigidity to the board.

Starch is used in the manufacture of various adhesives or glues [22] for book-binding,
wallpaper adhesives, paper sack production, tube winding, gummed paper,
envelope adhesives, school glues and bottle labeling. Starch derivatives, such as
yellow dextrins, can be modified by addition of some chemicals to form a hard glue
for paper work; some of those forms use borax or soda ash, which are mixed with
the starch solution at 5070 C to create a very good adhesive. Sodium silicate can
be added to reinforce these formulae.

Starch is also used to make some packing peanuts, and some drop ceiling tiles.
Textile chemicals from starch are used to reduce breaking of yarns during
weaving; the warp yarns are sized. Starch is mainly used to size cotton based
 yarns. Modified starch is also used as textile printing thickener.
In the printing industry, food grade starch [23] is used in the manufacture of
anti-set-off spray powder used to separate printed sheets of paper to avoid wet
ink being set off.
Starch is used to produce various bioplastics, synthetic polymers that are
biodegradable. An example is polylactic acid.
For body powder, powdered corn starch is used as a substitute for talcum
powder, and similarly in other health and beauty products.
In oil exploration, starch is used to adjust the viscosity of drilling fluid, which
is used to lubricate the drill head and suspend the grinding residue in
petroleum extraction.
Glucose from starch can be further fermented to biofuel corn ethanol using the
so called wet milling process. Today most bioethanol production plants use the
dry milling process to ferment corn or other feedstock directly to ethanol. [24]
Hydrogen production can use starch as the raw material, using enzymes.[25]

[edit] See also

Acrylamide, present in fried potatoes

Baking, making starches digestible
Cooking
Distilled beverage, brewing from starch alcohol
Flour
Modified starch
Non-Newtonian fluid
Starch indicator
Yeast extract

[edit] References

1. Brown, W. H.; Poon, T. (2005). Introduction to organic chemistry (3rd ed.). Wiley.
ISBN 0-471-44451-0.[page needed]
2. Revedin, A.; Aranguren, B.; Becattini, R.; Longo, L.; Marconi, E.; Lippi, M. M.;
Skakun, N.; Sinitsyn, A. et al. (2010). "Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of
plant food processing". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (44):
188159. doi:10.1073/pnas.1006993107. PMC 2973873. PMID 20956317.
3. Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (Pliny), Book XIII, Chapter 26, The paste
used in preparation of paper
4. Pliny the Elder, The Natural History (Pliny), Book XIII, Chapter 17, [1]
 5. Hunter, Dard (1947). Papermaking. DoverPublications. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-486-
23619-3.
6. ^ a b NNFCC Renewable Chemicals Factsheet: Starch
7. International Starch Institute Denmark, Starch production volume
8. Smith, Alison M. (2001). "The Biosynthesis of Starch Granules".
Biomacromolecules 2 (2): 33541. doi:10.1021/bm000133c. PMID 11749190.
9. Stryer, Lubert; Berg, Jeremy Mark; Tymoczko, John L. (2002). "Section 11.2.2".
Biochemistry (5th ed.). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-3051-0.
10. Ball, Steven G.; Matthew K Morell (2003). "FROM BACTERIAL GLYCOGEN
TO STARCH: Understanding the Biogenesis of the Plant Starch Granule".
Annual Review of Plant Biology 54 (1): 207233.
doi:10.1146/annurev.arplant.54.031902.134927. PMID 14502990.
11. David R. Lineback, "Starch", in AccessScience@McGraw-Hill.
12. ^ a b Perry, George H; Dominy, Nathaniel J; Claw, Katrina G; Lee, Arthur S;
Fiegler, Heike; Redon, Richard; Werner, John; Villanea, Fernando A et al.
(2007). "Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number
variation". Nature Genetics 39 (10): 125660. doi:10.1038/ng2123. PMC 2377015.
PMID 17828263.
13. Myers, P.Z. (December 11, 2008). "Amylase and human evolution".[self-published
source?]

14. Anne-Charlotte Eliasson (2004). Starch in food: Structure, function and

applications. Woodhead Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8493-2555-7.
15. Ophardt, Charles. "Sweetners - Introduction". Elmhurst College.
16. White, John S. (December 2, 2008). "HFCS: How Sweet It Is".
17. Modified Starches. CODEX ALIMENTARIUS published in FNP 52 Add 9
(2001)
18. Maki, K. C.; Pelkman, C. L.; Finocchiaro, E. T.; Kelley, K. M.; Lawless, A. L.;
Schild, A. L.; Rains, T. M. (2012). "Resistant Starch from High-Amylose Maize
Increases Insulin Sensitivity in Overweight and Obese Men". Journal of Nutrition
142 (4): 71723. doi:10.3945/jn.111.152975. PMID 22357745.
19. Bodinham, Caroline L.; Frost, Gary S.; Robertson, M. Denise (2009). "Acute
ingestion of resistant starch reduces food intake in healthy adults". British
Journal of Nutrition 103 (6): 91722. doi:10.1017/S0007114509992534.
PMID 19857367.
20. Nugent, A. P. (2005). "Health properties of resistant starch". Nutrition Bulletin
30: 2754. doi:10.1111/j.1467-3010.2005.00481.x.
21. Higgins, Janine A. (2012). "Whole Grains, Legumes, and the Subsequent Meal
Effect: Implications for Blood Glucose Control and the Role of Fermentation".
 Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism 2012: 1. doi:10.1155/2012/829238.
PMC 3205742. PMID 22132324.
22. "Stuck on Starch: A new wood adhesive". US Department of Agriculture. 2000.
23. "Spray Powder". Russell-Webb. Archived from the original on 2007-08-09.
Retrieved 2007-07-05.
24. American coalition for ethanol, Ethanol facilities
25. Zhang, Y.-H. Percival; Evans, Barbara R.; Mielenz, Jonathan R.; Hopkins,
Robert C.; Adams, Michael W.W. (2007). Melis, Anastasios. ed. "High-Yield
Hydrogen Production from Starch and Water by a Synthetic Enzymatic
Pathway". PLoS ONE 2 (5): e456. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000456.
PMC 1866174. PMID 17520015.

[edit] External links

Starch, by Martin Chaplin

Starch - Strke, scientific journal on starch

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