Novel low-amylose starch from white variety of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) fruit– nutritional, functional and pasting properties

This work presents a novel low-amylose starch from white peach palm ( Bactris gasipaes Kunth) fruit, and aimed to obtain and characterize the nutritional, morphological and physicochemical-functional characteristics of white peach palm starch (WPPS). Starch yield was close to 68 g 100g -1 . WPPS showed low moisture, water activity and lipids, and high starch content (∼89 g 100g -1 ), which had <14 g 100g -1 of amylose and up to 86 g 100g -1 of amylopectin, being a low-amylose starch. CIE Lab colorimetric parameters, L*, a* and b*, showed a prevalent white colour with a small tendency of yellow-greener tons. L*, a* and b* were used to estimate amylose content, being <9 g 100g -1 . FTIR spectra showed vibration bands at 3280 cm -1 and 998 cm -1 . XRD diffractogram suggested that WPPS had an A-type crystalline structure and degree of crystallinity ∼24%, reflecting the amylose/amylopectin ratio on its starch. Thermogravimetric analysis indicates a WPPS stability under higher temperature, which agrees with the pasting analysis. WPPS displayed a higher pasting temperature (93.1°C), peak viscosity (∼0.921 Pa.s) and low viscosity breakdown (0.051 Pa.s) and final viscosity (1.014 Pa.S), when comparing to literature. These results suggested that WPPS has great potential to be used in diverse food and pharmaceutical/chemical industries. • •An Amazonian starch from white peach palm fruit was extracted and characterized. • The starch had high yield, low water activity and low-amylose content. • Starch granules had up to 9 μm, with rounded and oval shapes, with smooth surfaces. • An A-type crystalline structure and a crystallinity degree of 24% were found. • The starch showed higher pasting temperature and peak viscosity.