Explain the Characteristics of Starch Granule
Starch granules, primarily, are made up of amylose (20-30%) and or amylopectin (70-80%) molecules arranged radially. Each granule typically containing several million amylopectin molecules, made up of several million glucose units, accompanied by a much larger number of smaller amylose molecules, made up of 500 to 20,000 glucose units in each chain. Amylopectin is the major component of most of the starches and is responsible for the organization of the granules. Amylopectin (without amylose) can be isolated from 'waxy' maize starch (is so termed because when the kernel is cut the new surface appears as vitreous or waxy), whereas amylose (without amylopectin) is best isolated after specifically hydrolysing the amylopectin with pullulanase.