VARIOUS TECHNIQUES FOR THE MODIFICATION OF STARCH AND THE APPLICATIONS OF ITS DERIVATIVES

Abstract

Starch is a major carbohydrate easily extractable from various native sources, like potato, maize, corn, wheat, etc, which finds wide application in various food and non food industries. Since time immemorable various attempts are being made in order to modify this highly flexible polymer with an aim to enhance the positive attributes and eliminate the short comings of the native starches. Modifications are generally made by physical methods like osmotic-pressure treatment, deep-freezing and thrashing; chemical methods that primarily include derivatizations such as etherification, esterification and crosslinking, oxidation, cationization and grafting of starch; enzymatic degradation techniques and genetical modifications which involves the transgenic techniques targeting the various enzymes involved in starch biogenesis. All these techniques tends to produce a variety of derivatives with altered physicochemical properties and modified structural attributes of high technological value for instance carboxymethylated starch used as a binding and disintegrating agent. This review summarizes the various methods of starch modification that can be employed to produce a novel molecule with substantial applications in various industries including a large number of advances in pharmaceutical industry along with the future prospectives.