Specific Physical and Chemical Properties of Potato Starch

Potato starch offers several unique properties essential for nutrition, and numerous non-nutritional applications. First of all, it is the sole native starch of anionic character. For that reason, potato starch combines, for instance, with proteins forming various complexes considered as potential biodegradable plastics. Potato starch is, practically, the sole starch variety containing a considerable amount of organically bound phosphorous. Hence, potatoes are an important source of phosphorous in a diet poor in fish. Potato starch distinguishes itself from other starches in the size of its granules which reach up to 150 μm in their diameter. Regular potato starch contains up to 27% amylose but, recently, also almost purely amylopectin (so-called waxy) starch and starches of enhanced content of amylose, so-called hylon starches, have become available through genetic modifications. Regular starches also contain up to 1.5% protein. While looking for a good source of protein suitable for the synthesis of spidroin (protein of the spider net) attention has been paid to genetic modifications of potatoes to replace genetically modified goat milk as a superior source of that protein. Potato starch granules swell much more readily than granules of other starches and resulting gels are much more viscous than gels of the same concentration from other starches. Specific properties of potato starch are manifested in results of several physical modifications such as gelatinization, thermolysis and pyrolysis, deep freezing, high pressure, ultrasounds, electromagnetic radiation (ionizing x-ray, neutron, , , and microwaves, ultraviolet, visible linearly polarized, infrared), low pressure glow plasma, corona discharges, the solvent effect. The unique properties of potato starch are also revealed in physicochemical modifications, that is, formation of the Werner type complexes with metal ions, all surface sorption, capillary, inclusion and channel complexes, and numerous chemical and enzymatic modifications. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________