Morphological, molecular evolution an in vitro digestibility of filamentous granules of banana starch during fruit development

The development of starch granules of a banana cultivar (morado variety - Musa AAA subgroup Red dacca) from filamentous shape to semi-spherical and finally to oval shape, was studied. The purity of the extracted starch changed from 83.5% (6 weeks) to 95.4% (16 weeks). Impurities were ascribed to cellulosic and latex fractions responsible for the integrity of the pristine fruit. The amylose content was stabilized at about 29.6% after the 12th week. The thermal analysis showed that the gelatinization enthalpy increased from 5.0 to 11.2 J/g from the 6th to the 12th week, indicating an increased degree of internal molecular organization. The analysis of chain-length distribution and gel permeation chromatography, showing that the content of long chains (B1, B2, and B3+) increased with the development of the starch granule. Also, XRD analysis indicated that C- type X-ray diffraction pattern from early to later phases of development, although the relative crystallinity content increased from 19.3 to 23.5% after 16 weeks of development. FTIR revealed the formation of more ordered structures with the development time. In vitro digestion tests showed that the resistant starch fraction increased from 37.5% for week 6 to 55.5% for week 16.