Evaluation of chemical, morphological, structural and thermal properties of white sorghum starch

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a tropical plant and has the fifth ranking of world cereals production. One of the important aspects of sorghum is drought tolerance and little input need during growth which has made that suitable for cultivation in semiarid regions. Due to the presence of tannin compounds in internal part of sorghum grains and low digestion of cooked protein, sorghum flour consumption is limited. Sorghum grain contains more than 70% starch which is an important tasteless ingredient in food formulas, as the main source of energy and thickening and gelling agent. Extraction of starch from sorghum in regarding to its nutritional problems is a good solution for extension of sorghum uses in food industry. Starch is a semi crystalline structure consisted on linear amylose and branched amylopectin molecules packed in granules. Ratio of these two molecules and their molecular short order and macrostructure and size and shape of granules determine functional properties of starch in the final product. Starch properties is depended on genetic residues so that starches from tubers have distinct differences with cereal starches even obvious differences exists between cereal starches and varieties. In this study we have investigated chemical, morphological, structural and thermal properties of starches four white sorghum line.
Material and White sorghum grains were prepared from local farms with line numbers KDFGS1, KDFGS6, KDFGS9 and KDFGS20. Starches were extracted sorghum lines using alkaline steeping method and further purified using toluene-water-salt solution. Chemical parameters were determined including protein by Kjeldahl digestion method, lipid by soxhlet extractor, ash by burning in furnace, moisture by oven drying and amylose content by iodine binding colorimitry,. Light microscopy coupled with digital camera was used for granules shape and size determination moreover surface properties and morphology of granules was observed using scanning electron microscopy technique. Color of starches were determined with hunterlab colorimeter. To evaluate crystalline structure of sample i.e. type of crystals and degree of crystallinity, starches first were conditioned in desiccator containing saturated aqueous sodium chloride solution at 25°C for a week then X-ray diffraction of sample in diffraction angels from 4-40° was determined. Thermal properties of crystals melting or gelatinization were measured using differential scanning calorimetry of starch in deionized water in temperatures from 20-120°C with heating rate of 10°C/min .From heat flow changes over temperature, temperature of onset, peak and conclusion points of crystalline structure melting and its required enthalpy were calculated. Functional groups of starches were investigated using FTIR technique to observe.
Isolated starches had appropriate quality due to low amount of protein (