Modification of starch by novel and traditional ways: influence on the structure and functional properties

Abstract

Starch, a polymeric carbohydrate widely present in plant biomass, has gained popularity owing to its functional characteristics, lower cost and ability to completely decompose without any toxic byproducts. Native starches have the fewest applications among the food and non-food sectors. Thus, modifications to eliminate their shortcomings, viz., low pH, reduced viscosity, easy retrogradation, gelling, and syneresis during cooking, will prove to be useful through application extension. Physical modifications are simple and less expensive. Meanwhile, chemical modifications involve the extraction of the hydroxyl group from the starch molecule, yielding the desirable outcome for the extensive use of starch. With the advent of green chemistry, considerable attention has been paid to the development of novel physical modifications with the advantages of high efficiency, environmentally friendly operation, and ease of starch modification. High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) processing, microwave processing, pulsed electric field (PEF), and cold plasma are some of the tactics that govern this modification accordingly, keeping in mind the environment suitability and application broadness as well. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the chemical alteration of starches by means of oxidation, succinylation and acetylation to explore new horizons to improve their utilization potential beyond food, viz., pharmaceuticals, textiles and other fields. Increases in the solubility features, in vitro digestibility terms, resistant starches proportion and application extension are the selected traits discussed herein.