Functionalization Methods of Starch and Its Derivatives: From Old Limitations to New Possibilities

It has long been known that starch as a raw material is of strategic importance for meeting primarily the nutritional needs of people around the world. Year by year, the demand not only for traditional but also for functional food based on starch and its derivatives is growing. Problems with the availability of petrochemical raw materials, as well as environmental problems with the recycling of post-production waste, make non-food industries also increasingly interested in this biopolymer. Its supporters will point out countless advantages such as wide availability, renewability, and biodegradability. Opponents, in turn, will argue that they will not balance the problems with its processing and storage and poor functional properties. Hence, the race to find new methods to improve starch properties towards multifunctionality is still ongoing. For these reasons, in the presented review, referring to the structure and physicochemical properties of starch, attempts were made to highlight not only the current limitations in its processing but also new possibilities. Attention was paid to progress in the non-selective and selective functionalization of starch to obtain materials with the greatest application potential in the food (resistant starch, dextrins, and maltodextrins) and/or in the non-food industries (hydrophobic and oxidized starch).

Insights into starch-based gels: Selection, fabrication, and application

Starch a natural polymer, has made significant advancements in recent decades, offering superior performance and versatility compared to synthetic materials. This review discusses up-to-date diverse applications of starch gels, their fabrication techniques, and their advantages over synthetic materials. Starch gels renewability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, scalability, and affordability make them attractive. Also, advanced theoretical foundations and emerging industrial technologies could further expand their scope and functions inspiring new applications.

Micro foaming performance of scCO2-aid glutaraldehyde/hexametaphosphate/thermoplastic starch foams modified by alkali treatment and montmorillonite nano-platelets

The micro foaming performance, moisture resistance and dynamic viscosity of scCO2-aid glutaraldehyde/hexametaphosphate/thermoplastic tapioca starch (GA/SHMP/TOS) foams were considerably improved by proper NaOH treatment. The expansion ratio, resilience rate, dynamic viscosity values of these NaOH modified foams improved to a maximum, as the time for NaOH treatment approached a proper value. The dynamic viscosity, expansion ratio and resilience rate of the scCO2-aid GA/SHMP/TOS foams modified using 110 atm scCO2-pressure, the proper alkali treatment time, SHMP loading and varying montmorillonite (MMT) loadings improved further, as their MMT loadings approached a proper value of 2.5 part per hundred parts of tapioca starch (PHTOS). Relatively large dynamic viscosity (7.1x104 Pa·s), extremely large expansion ratio (∼75), cell density (1.1x109 cells/cm3) and/or resilience rate (∼80%) were acquired for the scCO2-aid GA/SHMP/TOS/MMT foam modified using the proper alkali treatment time and MMT loading. Thermal analyses results showed that crystallization onset temperatures and crystallization rates of scCO2-aid GA/SHMP/TOS/MMT foams modified using the proper alkali treatment time and varying MMT loadings improved to a highest value by adding 2.5 PHTOS of MMT nano-platelets. Possible reasons accounting for the considerably improved micro foaming performance of scCO2-aid GA/SHMP/TOS/MMT foams modified using the proper alkali treatment time and MMT loading are proposed in this study.