| Abstract: | The most important rheological properties of starches of several major starch crops grown in Ghana were examined. the consistency changes during the whole pasting cycle and the gel-forming power were tested with starches of several species of yams (Dioscorea), plantain (Musa paradisiaca) cultivars, cocoyams (both Xanthosoma sagittifolium and Colocasia antiquorum) and several local varieties of cassava (Manihot utilissima). Most of the yam starches gave very viscous pastes yielding very strong and ‘short’ gels on cooling, some of them with a very high retrogradation tendency. the rheological properties of plantain starches were similar to those of yam starches; cocoyam starches produced pastes which had lower viscosity and exhibited some breakdown on prolonged heating and stirring and a poorer setback on cooling. With ‘new’ cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) the gel-forming power, however, was higher than that of cassava and sweet-potato starches. |
