| Abstract: | Detailed starch particle distribution curves for 33 Finnish barley varieties were determined by a Celloscope technique. All of the curves showed two maxima with respect to both the number and mass. Reproducibility of the counting method was controlled by making duplicate samples to test critical points in the sample treatment. Amounts of the small granules in the barley varieties were rather similar, but average volumes of the large particles varied by even more than 100%. This showed that the essential differences between the varieties appeared in the region termed here as the medium size granules. Based on the knowledge of the accurate size distribution curves from 33 different barley varieties an easy and simple procedure was developed to evaluate granule size distributions of starch in barley samples well enough for practical purposes. |
