Modification of African breadfruit (Treculia africana, Decne) kernel starch: Physicochemical, morphological, pasting, and thermal properties.

The need for starch to meet the ever-increasing industrial applications and its inherent problems in the native state have led to researches into unconventional starch sources and starch modifications, respectively. In this study, starch was isolated from African breadfruit kernels and modified to produce acetylated, AC, oxidized, OX, and acid-thinned, AT, starches. The effects of modifications on the native starch, NA, were examined through physicochemical, pasting, morphological and thermal properties. Modifications caused significant (p < .05) reductions in the NA starch moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fat, and crude fibre compositions. Swelling power had direct relationship with increase in temperature. Following modifications, OX starch showed the most significant increase in oil absorption capacity while NA had better water absorption capacity than the modified starches. Acid-thinning significantly improved the gelation and reduced the pasting properties of NA starch. Morphological study using scanning electron micrograph, revealed oblong and oval granules with rough surfaces for all the starches with no significant differences. Thermogravimetry of the starches showed single-step decomposition with increased thermal stability of African breadfruit kernel starch following modifications. DSC study showed that gelatinisation transition temperature of NA reduced following modification. The study showed that modification improved African breadfruit kernel starch properties.