Chemical Modifications of Starch; A Prospective for Sweet Potato Starch

The current review presents the potential chemical modifications and applications of sweet potato starch in food and non-food industries. Native starch in general and particularly sweet potato starch characteristics have several functional features and applications in biomedicine as well as in the food industry. Modified starch is expected to enhance such characteristics as discussed in this review. For instance, due to the polymeric and branching nature of starch; the starch is usually less soluble, absorbs less water and oil, and shows a strong ability to bind to iodine. Also, native starches have significantly lower digestibility values under enzymatic treatment. Starch modifications, therefore are designed to enhance one or more of the above-mentioned limitations; thereby, modification of starch can alter the physicochemical characteristics of the native starch to improve its functional characteristic. Starches can be modified using physical methods (annealing, heat moisture treatment, pre-gelatinization, and other non-thermal processes), chemical methods (etherification, acetylation, acid modification, cationic linking, esterification, cross-linking, and oxidation), enzymatic modification methods, genetic alteration process or combination of them.