STARCH is an important product in the herbal, but also dietary and cosmetic fields, because it can give both derivatives, such as monosaccharides (glucose), disaccharides and oligosaccharides, but it can also be used directly for its homogeneous polysaccharide characteristics.
Each starch drug contains a different starch, not only from the microscopic point of view (with granules of different shapes, simple or compound), but also from the chemical-physical one (thanks to the different amylose / amylopectin ratio).
Starch (in particular amylose) dissolves at high temperatures, close to the boiling point of water; then, if it is brought back to room temperature, it forms the so-called salda d "starch, that is a partial condensation of the starch, which also acquires a certain insolubility in water, associated with its hygroscopicity.
A starch that has a different amylose / amylopectin ratio expresses in a different way the chemical-physical properties exploited at a technical level, for example in the "use of starch as an excipient to give shape, structure, consistency to cosmetic, dietary or herbal products. .
The starch, then, can be modified; in this case the source is taken and it is genetically modified, through mutations induced at the biotechnological level, to produce a starch with a particularly functional amylose / amylopectin ratio. Starch can also be treated. extract, obtained from the drug, with high temperatures, close to those of boiling, to obtain a pre-gelatinized starch, that is a product that has a particular compactness (used in the formulation of certain products to which it gives this compactness). The same applies to cross-linked or hydrolyzed starch, that is chemically and physically treated with reagents (hypochlorite), or with particular temperatures, to give chemical-physical characteristics suitable for dietary, herbal and cosmetic use; its wide profile of use is due to its properties as a hygroscopic agent or as an agent with gelatinizing peculiarities (compactness) to be transferred to the product.
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