Potatoes are usually a high-glycaemic index (GI) food. Finding a low-GI potato and developing a screening method for finding low-GI cultivars are both health and agricultural priorities. The aims of the present study were to screen the commonly used and newly introduced cultivars of potatoes, in a bid to discover a low-GI potato, and to describe the relationship between in vitro starch digestib...

This article reviews the pressure gelatinization of starch with a special focus on potato starch which is a key food ingredient and an industrial raw material. First of all, the application of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), as a novel processing parameter, to food processing is briefly overviewed with some historical backgrounds. It has been revealed in the last century that a starch-water mi...

A chimeric gene containing the patatin promoter and the transitpeptide region of the small-subunit carboxylase gene was utilized to direct expression of Escherichia coli glycogen synthase (glgA) to potato (Solanum tuberosum) tuber amyloplasts. Expression of the glgA gene produd in tuber amyloplasts was between 0.007 and 0.028% of total protein in independent potato lines as determined by immuno...

Starch and sugar content of potato tubers are quantitative traits, which are models for the candidate gene approach for identifying the molecular basis of quantitative trait loci (QTL) in noninbred plants. Starch and sugar content are also important for the quality of processed products such as potato chips and French fries. A high content of the reducing sugars glucose and fructose results in ...

Two digestion experiments were conducted to determine the effect of various levels of potato processing residue in feedlot diets on digestion of dry matter, gross energy, crude protein and starch. In Exp. 1, 10 Hereford steers (average weight 360 kg) were randomly allotted to one of five diets in which (1) 0, (2) 15, (3) 30, (4) 45 or (5) 60% of diet dry matter was provided by potato processing...

BACKGROUND Starch is biosynthesised by a complex of enzymes including various starch synthases and starch branching and debranching enzymes, amongst others. The role of all these enzymes has been investigated using gene silencing or genetic knockouts, but there are few examples of overexpression due to the problems of either cloning large genomic fragments or the toxicity of functional cDNAs to...

Four plant starches were used to study human amylase activity in normal serum and urine, “pancreatitis” serum,duodenal fluid (secretin stimulated),saliva, and pancreatic extract. The starches were derived from waxy maize, high amylosecorn, potato, and corn (pearl), and were lintnerized. It was shown that the rate of digestion of starch by each of the fluids tested dependson the plant starch sel...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is a nutritious food crop and, based on the high starch content of its storage root, a potential bioethanol feedstock. Enhancing the nutritional value and starch quantity of storage roots are important goals of sweet potato breeding programs aimed at developing improved varieties for direct consumption, processing, and industrial uses. However, developing impro...

A sharp temperature optimum is observed at 21.5 degrees C when the incorporation of [(14)C]sucrose into starch is measured with discs cut from developing tubers of potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv Desirée). By contrast, increasing temperatures over the range 9 to 31 degrees C only enhance release of (14)C to respiratory CO(2) and incorporation of (14)C into the ethanolsoluble fraction. By compar...

The effect of cooking on starch hydrolysis, polyphenol contents, and in vitro α-amylase inhibitory properties of mushrooms (two varieties Russula virescens and Auricularia auricula-judae), sweet potato (Ipomea batatas), and potato (Solanum tuberosum) was investigated. The total, resistant, and digestible starch contents of the raw and cooked food samples (FS) ranged from 6.4 to 64.9; 0 to 10.1;...