Cereal Chem 44:245 - 252.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
New Starches. II. The Properties of the Starch Chunks from Amaranthus retroflexus.

K. J. Goering. Copyright 1967 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Starch has been produced from Amaranthus retroflexus (pigweed) by a modified wet-milling technique. The starch in this seed is composed of two distinct entities, namely, a small amount of very small spherical granules and a large amount of massive starch chunks. These starch chunks were found to have unusual pasting characteristics. The Brabender viscosity curve for this starch does not show a cooking maximum; therefore, it is different from any other natural starch. The low solubility and swelling power of chunk pigweed starch suggests it has very strong, uniform, and extensive forces holding the mass together. The ease of attack by the amylases, in direct conflict with its solubility in dimethyl sulfoxide, suggests that the starch mass is very homogeneous.