Potato Starch

• CAS No.: 68412-29-3
• Color: Yellow
• Appearance: Powder
• Transport Package: Paper
• Specification: large
• Trademark: china
• Origin: China
• HS Code: 11052000
• Production Capacity: 5000kg/Year

Product Description

From cornstarch to tapioca, starches are the ingredients we reach for to add body to soups, give spoon-coating thickness to gravies, and lend silky puddings a spoonable texture. Potato starch is gaining in popularity for its versatility in the kitchen. A finely textured, powder-like product, potato starch is made by extracting the natural starches found inside of a potato. The positive attributes of potato starch are that it's gluten-free, virtually flavorless, and it can thicken at low temperatures. Here, we share everything you need to know about this kitchen staple, including our favorite ways to use it at home.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) was one of the most important noncereal staple food crops originated in the Andes Mountains, which is fourth in the production quantity (359 million tons, 2020) worldwide following maize, wheat, and rice (FAO, 2021). China was the main producer of potato with annual production of 78.2 million tons among the 159 countries that hold records for potato cultivation (FAO, 2021). Potato is rich in multiple nutrients including carbohydrates, protein, vitamin, minerals, and fiber, and thus is always grown as food for eating directly and for producing starch-based materials with lots of irreplaceable advantages in different fields (Reyniers et al., 2020). As the major component and the dominant energy storage material in tubers, starch accounts for approximately 15-20% of fresh potato weight (Bertoft & Blennow, 2016). Generally, potato starch mainly exists in the body and is isolated with various methods for further utilization (Neeraj et al., 2021)

Potato starch is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of large numbers of glucose units through glycosidic bonds, which is mainly formed with amylose and amylopectin. Potato starch molecular and granule structure determine the different starch physicochemical properties such as crystallinity, gelatinization, and texture. Potato amylose is a glucan that is connected by α-(1→4) glycosidic bond and a few α-(1→6) glycosidic bond, whereas amylopectin is a highly branched glucan with α-(1→4) glycosidic as backbone and branching through α-(1→6) glycosidic linkage (Gilbert, 2011). Amylopectin has a C chain connecting the reducing end and A, B chains connecting the C chain, while the amylose has a long chain with small number of branched chains connected to reducing end (Li et al., 2017). However, other features of potato starch structure such as composition of amorphous lamella and the amylose/amylopectin ratio in crystalline layer are still unclearly understood.

The biosynthesis of potato starch is highly complex that requires coordination of various biological enzymes. Currently, several major enzymes such as ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), starch synthase (SS), starch branching enzyme (SBE), starch debranching enzymes (DBE), glucan/water dikinase (GWD), and phosphoglucan/water dikinase (PWD), have been identified during potato starch metabolism (Carciofi et al., 2011; Qu et al., 2018; Reyniers et al., 2020). Other enzymes such as sucrose synthase (SuSy) and UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGPase) are also responsible for synthesis of precursor substance, amylose, and amylopectin (Reyniers et al., 2020). Nonetheless, structure of these synthesis-related enzymes and corresponding synthesis-related genes are rarely studied.

Potato starch as natural polymer is also widely accepted and used in many industrial areas due to its perfect performance. Generally, due to its insolubility in water and resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis, native potato starch do not have adequate properties for most industrial use (Apriyanto et al., 2022). Therefore, modification of potato starch via physical, chemical, or biological methods is developed (BeMiller & Huber, 2015; Chen et al., 2015; Vafina et al., 2018). Native and modified potato starch are also used as biodegradable materials such as degradable and edible packaging in food industry to reduce environmental pollution (Cheng et al., 2021) and as a new medical material like film and disintegrant because of its good biocompatibility and digestibility (Cheng et al., 2021).

In the past decades, numerous new studies focused on the structure, properties, and utilization of potato starch had been reported. This review updates the knowledge of structure, function, biosynthesis, and current application of potato starch in food and nonfood fields. A comprehensive summary of these starch characteristics will contribute to the understanding of nature and further genetic improvement of potato starch properties.