Starches of Some Food Crops, Changes During Processing and Their Nutraceutical Potential

Starch is a polymer widely distributed in the nature and it is the principal component of cereals, tubers, legumes, and unripe fruits. Traditionally, starch has been isolated and used as raw material in diverse food products to produce or to improve specific functionalities and nowadays novel starches from unconventional sources have gained interest due to improved or due to different physicochemical and functional characteristics, especially for new food products. Recently, the potential nutraceutical characteristics of starchy products have increased the interest on this biopolymer. In this review, we describe the physicochemical and digestibility characteristics of starch present in diverse food crops namely maize and beans, and unconventional starch sources such as banana (Musa paradisiaca L.), mango (Mangifera indica L.), amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus), and barley (Hordeum vulgare), among others. The starch after cooking, the storage of starchy products and the potential of starch isolated from unconventional sources to produce resistant starch-rich products using different treatments are emphasized.