Rheological and Thermal Properties of Starch and Starch-Based Biopolymers

In addition to being a major source of energy in many higher plants, starch is very diverse in its functionality. Its native and modiŠed forms have played an important part in food and nonfood industries for decades. The versatility of starch has been demonstrated in a number of applications including viscosity and texture modiŠcation, fat replacement, adhesives, food preservation, chemical synthesis, gum replacement, binders, sizing for textiles and Šberglass, bulking agents, paper coating, dextrin and sweetener production, and many more (Balagopalan et al. 1988; Brown et al. 1995; Singh et al. 2003, 2007).