Partial characterization of starches from major banana (matooke) cultivars grown in Uganda.

The SEM of starch from five EAHB cultivars showed a mixture of irregular granule shapes with smooth surfaces. The starches' average diameter size ranged between 16.31 and 21.98 μm. The moisture, protein, and ash content of the starches were: 11.12%-11.84%, 0.1% and 0.23%-0.47% respectively. The amylose content of these starches was between 11% and 13%. The starches peak viscosity ranged between 488.42 and 558.66 RVU. The EAHB starches exhibited relatively low pasting temperatures (<75°C), a high peak viscosity (488.42-558.71 RVU), high level of viscosity breakdown (235.00-311.92 RVU) and low set-back values (61.21-104.33 RVU). In general, the EAHB starches' WHCs and SPs increased substantially at 80°C with maximum SP (12.43-14.27 g water/g starch) and solubility (12.52%-14.19%) values obtained at 90°C. The starch clarity ranged from 1.7% to 2.3% and followed the same pattern. The starches exhibited poor freeze-thaw stability as they had high syneresis (68% to 72%) after 10 freeze-thaw cycles.