Thermal properties of corn starch extraction intermediates by differential scanning calorimetry

Thermal properties of corn starch extraction intermediates from four types of corn were studied using differential scanning calorimetry. Starch at four different stages of extraction, including a standard single-kernel starch isolation procedure and three starch extraction intermediates, was isolated from mature corn kernels of B73 and Oh43 inbreds and the mutants of waxy (wx) and amylose extender (ae) in an Oh43 background. Differences in thermal properties and moisture and protein contents of starch from the extraction stages were statistically analyzed. Most thermal properties (gelatinization and retrogradation onset temperatures, gelatinization and retrogradation ranges, gelatinization and retrogradation peak temperatures, gelatinization and retrogradation enthalpies, peak height index, and percentage of retrogradation) of starches extracted at stage 3 intermediate (a procedure that did not include a final washing step) were similar to those of starch extracted by the standard single-kernel isolation procedure. Values for gelatinization peak temperature, gelatinization enthalpy, and peak height index were different between the standard and the stage 3 intermediate. The values obtained from starches extracted at stage 3, however, were consistent and predictable, suggesting that this extraction intermediate might be used in screening programs in which many starch samples are evaluated. By using the stage 3 extraction, samples could be evaluated in three rather than four days and the procedure saved approximately 0.5 hr of labor time. The other two starch extraction intermediates, which excluded filtering and washing or filtering, washing, and steeping, produced starch with thermal properties generally significantly different from starch extracted by the standard single-kernel isolation procedure.