Effect of Cold Plasma Treatment, Cross‐Linking, and Dual Modification on Corn Starch

Abstract

Corn starch has limited applications due to its paste intolerance during heating, high shear processing, and low pH of foods. In this study, native corn (NC) starch is treated by both cold plasma and chemical cross‐linking to produce modified starch. The cross‐link ratio (CR), granule morphology, as well as other physicochemical properties of the modified starch are evaluated. The CR is 5.2% by plasma treatment, and it could be further increased up to 23.7% by the subsequent cross‐linking using adipic acid and acetic acid anhydride mixture. Modified granules have more cracks, pits, holes, and damages than NC ones. FTIR spectra's shows some new peaks after dual modification (1563 cm−1) and plasma treatment (1730 cm−1). The plasma and cross‐linking treatments cause a significant increase of swelling power for all the modified starches. Results of the present study indicate the possibilities of exploring cold plasma and cross‐linking treatments for starch modifications.

Effect of atmospheric pressure plasma jet on the structure and physicochemical properties of wheat starch

“…Modified by radio frequency air plasma, the surface of cassava starch granules was also etched, resulting in the increased hydrophilicity (14). The viscosity of corn starch increased after being modified by DBD at 50 V for 5 min (15). In another study, glow-plasma (the discharge gas was nitrogen and helium) caused the viscosity parameters of potato starch paste decline (16).…”