Cereal Chem 42:558 - 568.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Wheat Starches. I. Comparison of Physicochemical Properties.

D. G. Medcalf and K. A. Gilles. Copyright 1965 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Starches for seventeen varieties of wheat were isolated with a minimum of granule damage. These varieties represented hard red spring, hard red winter, durum, and soft wheat classes. Amylose and amylopectin were isolated from both HRS and durum wheat starches and characterized by intrinsic viscosity and amount of iodine absorbed. No significant differences were observed between the polymers from the two wheat types. Starches were characterized by various physicochemical properties including percent amylose, intrinsic viscosity, water-binding capacity, gelatinization curves, and rate of iodine absorption. Percent amylose in the starches studied ranged from 23.4 to 27.6%. Durum starches tended to be on the high end of the range. Intrinsic viscosities varied for starches within the same wheat class and even for different samples of the same variety; however, no significant differences between classes were observed. Starches from durum wheat generally had larger water-binding capacities, greater rates of iodine absorption, and slightly lower temperatures of initial pasting than those from other wheat classes. These data suggest that solvents can penetrate durum starches more easily than other wheat starches. Starches from several spring wheat varieties had markedly different gelatinization characteristics.