Composition and food properties of Pachyrhizus ahipa roots and starch

OLIVIA V. LÓPEZ; SONIA Z. VIÑA; ANÍBAL N. A. PACHAS; MARINA N. SISTERNA; PABLO H. ROHATSCH; ALICIA MUGRIDGE; HUGO E. FASSOLA; MARÍA A. GARCÍA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: United States; Año: 2010 vol. 45 p. 223 - 233

0950-5423

The aims of this work were to evaluate productivity and postharvest handling conditions for ahipa roots; to establish a starch extraction procedure and to characterise the morphological, physicochemical and pasting properties of ahipa starch. Plants were grown in Misiones (Argentina), evaluating three planting densities and the application of a flower pruning (FP) practice. FP increased roots yield without modifying the functional properties of the starch. Storage assays allowed to rule out refrigeration and select 25 ºC as an appropriate temperature. Starch extraction yield was 56.54 g 100 g)1 roots (dry basis). Amylose content was 10.75%. The starch diffractograms were assigned to a type C pattern. Ahipa starch pastes gelatinised at relatively low temperature and showed low retrogradation tendency under refrigeration conditions. Rheological properties indicated that ahipa starch might be adequate as a food thickener. Thus, native ahipa starch seems to be an alternative to other traditional starch sources.