On the importance of organization of glucan chains on thermal properties of starch

The relationship between the internal structure of amylopectin from diverse plants and thermal properties of the starch granules has been investigated. Correlations were found between structural parameters, such as number of building blocks in clusters, interblock chain length and length of external chains, and gelatinization parameters. Onset gelatinization temperature negatively correlated with number of building blocks (r = −0.952, p < 0.01) and positively correlated with inter-block chain length (r = 0.905, p < 0.01). Enthalpy of gelatinization positively correlated with external chain length (r = 0.854, p < 0.01). These data showed that the internal structure is predictive of trends in thermal properties. A model is proposed based on the backbone concept of amylopectin structure that explains how the organization of chains in the semicrystalline lamellae of starch granules relates to the thermal properties.