Retrogradation of sweet potato amylose and amylopectin with narrow molecular weight distribution

Retrogradation of sweet potato amylose and amylopectin with narrow molecular weight distribution at different temperatures was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and light microscopy were combined to study the morphology of the molecular assemblies during retrogradation. Avrami equation was used to the retrogradation kinetics the of above starches by determining the crystallinity and the ratio of peak area of two distinctive peaks. It was found that only the ratio of peak area/total area at 2θ = ~16.3° could represent the crystallinity of retrograded starch-containing amorphous regions. Considering the crystallinity as retrogradation rate, only the retrogradation kinetics of sweet potato amylose could be analysed by Avrami equation, but not the amylopectin’s. All Avrami exponents n of amyloses at any temperatures were less than 1.0, indicating instantaneous nucleation and rod-like growth. AFM results showed that the maximum heights of layered structure for sweet potato amylose, amylopectin and blending of both were approximately 4800, 180 and 200 nm, respectively. The height of the former two decreased during storage, but the height of blending remained unchanged. Amylose served as nuclei of amylopectin during starch retrogradation.