The defatting of both corn and wheat starch with 85% methanol yields starches which start to gelatinise at lower temperatures and have increased overall viscosities compared with untreated starches. The lipids extracted from wheat and corn starch with 85 % methanol were similar in total amount but showed very large differences in the proportions of neutral and phospholipids. The extracted corn lipids contained eight times as much neutral lipids (mainly free fatty acids) as phospholipids whereas the proportions of neutral and phospholipids in wheat starch were approximately equal. Addition of extracted lipids to defatted starches significantly modified the swelling and viscosity characteristics. Addition of wheat and corn lipids to potato starch (which contains almost no lipids) indicated that the higher percentage of phospholipids in wheat starch probably contributed towards the lower viscosity characteristics of wheat starch compared with corn starch.

The factors responsible for the poor breadmaking quality of the high yielding wheat cultivar, Maris Huntsman, have been studied by fractionation of its flour, followed by reconstitution and small scale test baking. Interchange of components with those from quality Canadian Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat demonstrated the unique importance of the gluten component. Further fractionation revealed that the proportion of 'residue protein', i.e. protein insoluble in lactic acid solution, was much lower in Maris Huntsman than the CWRS. However, no improvement in quality resulted when this deficiency was overcome by the addition of extra residue protein derived from Maris Huntsman. Other studies involving interchange of Maris Huntsman and CWRS gluten components showed that there is a lack of quality in both the lactic acid-soluble and -insoluble components of Maris Huntsman gluten.