Starch isolation method impacts soft wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Claire) starch puroindoline and lipid levels as well as its functional properties

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L) kernel hardness is a major quality characteristic, which has been ascribed to the presence of puroindolines a and b. These proteins occur in higher levels at the surface of water-washed starch granules from soft wheat cultivars than at that of starch from hard wheat cultivars. In the present study, prime starch was isolated from flour from soft wheat (cultivar Claire) using a dough ball or batter based separation method. Starch isolated with the dough ball method contained lower levels of puroindolines, as well as of other starch granule associated proteins and lipids than that isolated with the batter method. Similar patterns of puroindoline and lipid levels after starch isolation can presumably be related to (polar) lipid binding by puroindolines. Both isolated starch fractions showed comparable differential scanning calorimetry thermograms, whereas higher levels of starch surface associated components restricted starch swelling. Necessary controls demonstrated that the observed differences did not arise from artefacts associated with hydration, fractionation or freeze-drying in the experimental protocols. Apparently, proteins and lipids at the starch granule surface impact water absorption and, as such, starch swelling, but they do not affect starch granule internal phenomena such as melting of the crystalline amylopectin chains. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.