Fractionation and characterization of starch granules using field-flow fractionation (FFF) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)

Starch is one of the main carbohydrates in food; it is formed by two polysaccharides: amylose and amylopectin. The granule size of starch varies with different botanical origins and ranges from less than 1 μm to more than 100 μm. Some physicochemical and functional properties vary with the size of the granule, which makes it of great interest to find an efficient and accurate size-based separation method. In this study, the full-feed depletion mode of split-flow thin cell fractionation (FFD-SF) was employed for a size-based fractionation of two types of starch granules (corn and potato) on a large scale. The fractionation efficiency (FE) of fraction-a for corn and potato granules was 98.4 and 99.4%, respectively. The FFD-SF fractions were analyzed using optical microscopy (OM) and gravitational field-flow fractionation (GrFFF). The respective size distribution results were in close agreement for the corn starch fractions, while they were slightly different for the potato starch fractions. The thermal properties of FFD-SF fractions were analyzed, and the results for the potato starch showed that the peak temperature of gelatinization (T_p) slightly decreases as the size of the granules increases. Additionally, the enthalpy of gelatinization (ΔH) increases when the granule size increases and shows negative correlation with the gelatinization range (ΔT).