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On the Building Block and Backbone Concepts of Amylopectin Structure
Author(s) -
Bertoft Eric
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
cereal chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.558
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1943-3638
pISSN - 0009-0352
DOI - 10.1094/cchem-01-13-0004-fi
Subject(s) - amylopectin , amylose , chemistry , starch , polymer , polymer science , sugar , polysaccharide , granule (geology) , organic chemistry , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , engineering , composite material
The molecular structure of the starch components has been a focus of research since it was discovered that starch is transformed into sugar by treatment with acid or barley malt extract in the beginning of the 19th century. Only in 1940 was it definitely recognized that starch contains two glucan polymers, wherein amylose was defined as the linear component and amylopectin as the branched polymer. Since then, the structure of amylopectin has been exhaustively investigated, and during the years several models have been suggested, of which the cluster model has obtained the most acceptance. During the last decade, however, experimental results have been obtained that are not entirely in favor of this model, and an alternative, two‐directional backbone model was proposed. This article discusses the latter model and its impact on our understanding of the structure, properties, and synthesis of the starch granule.