Effect of granule size on the properties of lotus rhizome C-type starch

Lotus rhizome C-type starch was separated into different size fractions. Starch morphologies changed from irregular to elongated, ellipsoid, oval, and spherical with decreasing granule size. The small- and very-small-sized fractions had a centric hilum, and the other size fractions had an eccentric hilum. The different size fractions all showed C-type crystallinity, pseudoplasticity and shear-thinning rheological properties. The range of amylose content was 25.6 to 26.6%, that of relative crystallinity was 23.9 to 25.8%, that of swelling power was 29.0 to 31.4 g/g, and that of gelatinization enthalpy was 12.4 to 14.2 J/g. The very-small-sized fraction had a significantly lower short-range ordered degree and flow behavior index and higher scattering peak intensity, water solubility, gelatinization peak temperature, gelatinization conclusion temperature, consistency coefficient, hydrolysis degrees, and digestion rate than the large-sized fraction. Granule size significantly positively influenced short-range ordered structure and swelling power and negatively influenced scattering peak intensity, water solubility, hydrolysis and digestion of starch (p < 0.01).