An Insight into the Ultrastructural and Physiochemical Characterization of Potato Starch: a Review

Potatoes are highly consumed food around the world, usually following processing of some kind. Apart from its noteworthy presence in diets, potato starch has a multitude of industrial applications as a food additive and recently in novel domains such as nanotechnology and bioengineering. This review examines the microscopic and spectroscopic methods of characterizing potato starch and compares the different properties. The microscopic techniques such as optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) allow observation of structural elements of potato starch. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) delves into the thermal behavior of starch in presence of water, while Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyze the behavior of various chemical bonds and crystallinity of starch. These characterizations are important from a dietary point of view for patients requiring a low-glycemic diet, as well as in facilitating research into a wider array of industrial applications.