Comparison of A and B starch granules from three wheat varieties.

Three starches from the wheat varieties AK58, ZM18 and YZ4110 were separated into large (A) and small (B) granules, which were characterized structurally and evaluated for their functional properties. SEM results showed that the size of A-granules from ZM18 and YZ4110 were about the same, but the sizes of A-granules and B-granules from AK58 were larger than those of ZM18 and YZ4110. FTIR spectra showed that all the samples exhibited a similar pattern, with seven main modes with maximum absorbance peaks near 3,500, 3,000, 1,600, 1,400, 1,000, 800, 500 cm-1. The B-granules of ZM18 and YZ4110 had less amylose content, although the difference among the total amylose contents of the three unfractionated starches was not significant. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed predominantly A-type crystallinity for all the starches. The A-granules showed sharper XRD patterns than the other starches. DSC analysis showed that the A-granules had broader ranges of gelatinization temperatures than the B-granules from the same wheat variety. The gelatinization enthalpy (ΔH) of A-granules was higher than that of B-granules. AK58 exhibited the smallest enthalpy, while ZM18 showed the largest enthalpy. In pasting tests, the A-granule starch of AK58 had higher peak, final and setback viscosity, lower breakdown and pasting temperature, and the B-granule starch and unfractionated starch of AK58 had lower peak, breakdown, final and setback viscosity and higher pasting temperature than ZM18 and YZ4110.