Saturday, February 03, 2007

The Starch

The Starch
The commonest digestible polysaccharide in plants is starch, and it can exist in two forms, amylose and amylopectin, both of which are polymers of D-glucose.

The amylose molecule is a linear, unbranched structure in which the glucose residues are attached solely through a-1,4 glycosidic bonds.

Amylopectin, on the a other hand, is a branched-chain polymer, the branch points occurring through a-1,6 glycosidic bonds.
The Starch