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Fibrillar Structure of Starch. Evidence for Crossed Fibrils from Incipient Gelatinization
Author(s) -
Sterling C.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
starch ‐ stärke
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1521-379X
pISSN - 0038-9056
DOI - 10.1002/star.19740260402
Subject(s) - starch , swelling , electron microscope , scanning electron microscope , materials science , optical microscope , swell , fibril , polarized light microscopy , composite material , crystallography , biophysics , chemistry , optics , geology , biology , physics , biochemistry , oceanography
By being brought to the threshold of gelatinization through careful heating in water, grains of native potato starch often were induced to swell differentially. At 55°C, radial elements (sectors) of the interior of these grains contracted centrifugally and expanded tangentially while the rigid exterior remained mostly unswollen and therefore was burst open due to the swelling of the interior. Evidence from the light microscope, the polarizing microscope, and the scanning electron microscope showed clearly the presence of radially oriented and near radial, crossed fibrillar elements, each of which traversed many lamellae, in the ungelatinized region. No ‘core’ was evident in the burst starch grain, nor was there any separation of lamellae.