Biopolymers containing in cassava starch (Manihot esculenta): Amylose and amylopectin

Abstract

Starch is an important raw material for the chemical, pharmaceutical, and textile industries and many other materials. Mainly, into food industry has great relevance as an additive due to its functional properties both native and modified. In addition, it is considered the main energy storage carbohydrate for plants, but also, it is also a highly-hydrophilic polyhydroxylated biopolymer that can be used as a precursor for the making of a numerous material with low-cost, abundance, and availability. Starch is constituted of two biopolymers called amylose and amylopectin influencing its properties such as crystallinity, viscosity, retrogradation, gelation, and stickiness. These properties are essential to give this raw material an industrial use, but they are not determined in terms of its spectral of chemical modifications. Particularly, information related specifically to these biopolymers is dispersed and only these are usually described as parts of complete material. The aim of this review is to give an overview of starch, mainly, taking as executor of the content of its components. This review is of an introductory nature, and allows an overview of amylose and amylopectin, as well as their significance in the properties of starch. In this sense, the growing interest in polyhydroxylated biopolymers, particularly starch, is displayed throughout the document. The importance of delving into the study of starch as a biomaterial is concluded, but also the importance of identifying and characterizing new sources of starch obtained from wild species or resulting from genetic or adaptive modifications.