| Abstract: | A Century of Starch Research in Germany Following a brief summary on the situation of starch research around the year of 1880 from the preceding present knowledge of the 19th century we try to show in its points of emphasis the ensuing further development in the course of those 100 years that have passed since then. In doing so, a number of different fields of problems have to be considered, which are by their nature altogether closely connected in the process of general scientific, methodological, analytical and technological knowledge with all further development of starch research, namely: morphology of starch granules and their properties, technology of starch production from various raw materials, degradation as well as modification of starch by means of physical, chemical or enzymatic treatment (starch derivatives, starch degradation products, saccharification products, resulting products and investigation of the chemical structure of starch. In the course of the last decades, information on the chemical structure of amylose and amylopectin has led - in the range of the entire chemistry of polysaccharides and their low molecular structural groups - to the application of specialized synthesis processes, which will, among other things, be of significance as to the aim of application of starch as a “re-growing raw material” for future development. For starch industry the 100 year period under consideration has - through starch research - led of revolutionary technological development, which, by means of optimum execution of single process steps, makes production plants with a daily processing capacity of several thousand tons of raw material possible. |
