Effect of Environmental Temperature During Development of Rice Plants on Some Properties of Endosperm Starch

Abstract

Abstract Starch granules were isolated from polished grains of rice plants ( Oriza sativa L.) grown under controlled temperature conditions. Distribution of isoamylase‐debranched starch materials and unit chain‐length of amylopectin were examined by gel‐filtration on columns. Higher environment temperature decreases amylose concentration in endosperm starches of Japanese rice cultivars. The amylose concentration in the endosperm starch is determined by the environment temperature 5 – 15 days after heading. Interestingly, the higher environment temperature seemed to increase the amount of long B chains and decrease that of short chains of amylopectin. The effect of environment temperature on pasting characteristics of starch by DSC, starch‐granule digestibility by amylases and X‐ray diffractograms of starch was also investigated.