1. Starch composition

Please refer to the bibliographical references at [1][2] .

Starch is a homopolymer of D-glucose.

The D-glucosyl units (chair conformation) are predominantly linked by α (1,4) bonds (95 – 96%) and, to a lesser extent, by α 1,6 bonds (4 – 5%). Starch is made up of two polymers with different primary structures: amylose, a linear molecule, and amylopectin, a branched molecule.

Starch comes in the form of granules ranging from 1 to 100 µm in size and shape, depending on botanical origin (figure 1 a and table 1...