The enzymatic activity of salivary amylase bound to the surface of several species of oral streptococci was determined by the production of acid from starch and by the degradation of maltotetraose to glucose in a coupled, spectrophotometric assay. Most strains able to bind amylase exhibited functional enzyme on their surface and produced acid from the products of amylolytic degradation. These s...

BACKGROUND Cassava starch, the economically important agricultural commodity in Thailand, can readily be cast into films. However, the cassava starch film is brittle and weak, leading to inadequate mechanical properties. The properties of starch film can be improved by adding plasticizers and blending with the other biopolymers. RESULTS Cassava starch (5%w/v) based films plasticized with glyc...

Candida tropicalis grows on soluble starch, corn, and cassava powders without requiring that these substrates be previously hydrolyzed. C. tropicalis possesses the enzyme needed to hydrolyze starch, namely, an alpha-amylase. That property has been used to develop a fermentation process whereby C. tropicalis can be grown directly on corn or cassava powders so that the resultant mixture of biomas...

The estimation of serum amylase by the saccharimetric method is based upon the digestion of a starch solution with serum followed by the determination of the reducing substances produced. Differences in numerical values obtained by modifications of the basic method may result from the use of various types of starch (l-3), from differences in the pH of the digestion mixture (l-3), and from varia...

A series of C4-C 12 alkyl acrylates and methacrylates was polymerized with starch by irradiating starch-monomer mixtures with 60CO. Homopolymers were extracted with cyclohexane. The amounts of insoluble versus soluble synthetic polymer in polymerizations run with alkyl acrylates varied less with the chain length of the alkyl substituent than in the polymerizations run with alkyl methacrylates: ...

BACKGROUND In vivo assays cannot always be conducted because of ethical reasons, technical constraints or costs, but a better understanding of the digestive process, especially in infants, could be of great help in preventing food-related pathologies and in developing new formulas with health benefits. In this context, in vitro dynamic systems to simulate human digestion and, in particular, inf...

The structure of Raw and Processed Amaranth Grains starch was studied by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In this study, starch morphological differences were observed between raw and processed (Boiled, Roasted and popped) grains derived from the same cultivar. Among food carbohydrates, starch occupies a unique position. It is the major carbohydrate storage material in many higher plan...

Arabidopsis thaliana mutants lacking the SS4 isoform of starch synthase have strongly reduced numbers of starch granules per chloroplast, suggesting that SS4 is necessary for the normal generation of starch granules. To establish whether it plays a direct role in this process, we investigated the circumstances in which granules are formed in ss4 mutants. Starch granule numbers and distribution ...