Starch with commercial potential: Chemical modification of banana starch

The current tendency is to look for alternative sources for obtaining starch with better physicochemical and functional characteristics, hi recent years, substantial progress has been made in obtaining starches from these sources, and study into their functional and physicochemical properties has also been made. Banana is a climateric fruit and is one of the crops of more importance in several tropical countries. Usually, it is consumed when ripe; for this reason, an important amount of the fruits is lost during commercialization due to inefficient postharvest handling. In the unripe state, banana fruit has high starch content. Utilization of native starch has some drawbacks because the process conditions (e.g., temperature, pH, pressure) reduce its use in industrial application. Native starch presents low shear stress resistance, low decomposition, high retrogradation, and syneresis. These shortcomings may be overcome by starch modification. The unconventional starches are not the exception, because it is necessary improving or modifying the functional properties, and consequently the application, with the obj ective to develop new products.