Journal of Food Engineering 103 (2011) 388–393

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Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Effect of high hydrostatic pressure on physicochemical, thermal

and morphological properties of mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) starch
Wenhao Li 1, Fusheng Zhang 1, Peilin Liu, Yunfei Bai, Lin Gao, Qun Shen ⇑
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Fruits and Vegetables Processing, Ministry of Agriculture,
Beijing Engineering Research Centre for Fruits and Vegetables Processing, Ministry of Education 100083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Mung bean starch–water suspension was subjected to high pressure treatment at 120, 240, 360, 480 and
Received 21 May 2010 600 MPa for 30 min, and changes in the structure, morphology and some physicochemical properties
Received in revised form 27 October 2010 were investigated. Light transmittance, swelling power and solubility decreased after the high hydro-
Accepted 5 November 2010
static pressure treatment. A significant increase in the peak viscosity, trough viscosity, final viscosity,
Available online 16 November 2010
pasting temperature and setback, and decrease in breakdown viscosity with increase in pressure treat-
ment was observed. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis showed a decrease in gelatini-
Keywords:
zation temperatures and gelatinization enthalpy upon high pressure treatments. The X-ray analysis
Starch
DSC
showed that high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment converted starch that displayed the C-type
RVA X-ray pattern to the B-type-like pattern. The HHP treatments altered the shape of starch granules and
Crystalline changed their surface appearance according to SEM analysis. HHP treatment (600 MPa, 30 min) caused
Physical modification a completely gelatinize of mung bean starch.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction ture treated sorghum starch, and the plot of degree of

Starch modification, which is an effective way to improve its
functional characteristics, can be used to tailor starch to specific
food applications. High pressure technology is a typical physical
modification way which offers a new possibility for the application
of starch to food products (Błaszczak et al., 2005). Effect of high
hydrostatic pressure (HHP) on starch gelatinization and alteration
of physicochemical properties of various starches have been stud-
ied in the past several decades. The mechanism of pressure-in-
duced gelatinization is significantly different from that of
heat-induced gelatinization (Liu et al., 2009a,b; Wang et al.,
2008; Rubens and Heremans, 2000). The gelation of starch during
heating is defined as phase transition from an ordered state to a
disordered one, which is related to granules hydration, rapid swell-
ing and loss of crystallinity and granular shape. Compare to heat-
induced starch, some starch samples after high pressure treatment
do not show any extensive swelling and kept granular character,
which resulted in a weaker gel and little amylose leaching out from
the granules (Liu et al., 2008, 2009a,b; Buckow et al., 2007; Stolt
et al., 2001; Douzals et al., 1998). According to Vallons and Arendt
(2009), no significant differences were found between the rheolog-
ical properties of the pressure-treated samples and the tempera-
⇑ Corresponding author. Fax: +86 01062737524.
E-mail address: shenqun@cau.edu.cn (Q. Shen).
1
Joint first author, who contributed equally to this work.
gelatinization against pressure was very similar to temperature-in-
duced gelatinization. Furthermore, lower viscosity of pressure-
treated starch suspensions (550 MPa) was observed in comparison
with thermal treatment (Stute et al., 1996).
The extent of gelatinization achieved by HHP treatment are
highly dependent on the starch type, water content, pressure lev-
els, temperature ranges and treatment time (Katopo et al., 2002;
Liu et al., 2008). It is reported that the A-type starches are the most
sensitive and the C-type ones are located in-between B- and
A-starches (Ahmed et al., 2007; Błaszczaka et al., 2005; Katopo
et al., 2002). For instance, gelatinization of wheat starch began be-
low 300 MPa and achieved completely at 600 MPa (Douzals et al.,
1996), while potato starch–water mixture gelatinized completely
when treated at 700 and 1200 MPa (at 40 °C for 60 min) for 10%
and 50% slurries, respectively (Kawai et al., 2007). It has also been
shown by X-ray diffraction that high-pressure treatment converts
the A-type pattern into B-type starches, whereas B-type starches
keep their original B-type pattern (Katopo et al., 2002). This may
be attributed to the differences between A- and B-type starches
of their amylopectin structures. Additionally, treatment tempera-
ture and time also affect the HHP-gelatinization significantly. The
degree of gelatinization increased with the increasing treatment
temperature and treatment time within the range of heat gelatini-
zation temperature and with the treatment time ranging up to
60 min, respectively (Bauer and Knorr, 2004; Douzals et al., 2001;
Stolt et al., 2001). Besides, the water content of starch–water

0260-8774/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2010.11.008
 W. Li et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 103 (2011) 388–393
systems would remarkably affect the extent of gelatinization, and
the degree of gelatinization increased with the increasing of water
content (Katopo et al., 2002; Muhr and Błanshard, 1982). Many re-
searches have concentrated on physicochemical, morphological
and thermal properties of various A-type and B-type starches as af-
fected by pressure treatment, while scarce information is available
on the behavior of C-type starches.
The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the
physicochemical properties and structure properties of mung bean
starch (C-type) which were subjected to HHP treatment in excess
of water as a function of time at various pressure levels. With
the obtained results, it is possible to precisely evaluate the avail-
ability and provide sufficient parameters to all kinds of uses of
mung bean starch.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Mung bean starch isolation
The mung bean variety Zhonglv N.O.1, collected by Crops Re-
search Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in
2007, was used in this study. Starch was isolated according the fol-
lowing procedures. Mung bean seeds were soaked with three times
its weight of deionized water for 18 h at 30 °C. The mung bean and
water were then blended in an impact mill for 3 min. The resulting
starch slurry was passed through 80 gauge mesh sieve, and depos-
ited in a beaker for 1 h to remove the supernatant. Then deionized
water was added to the deposition, and blended thoroughly, after
that, the starch slurry was settled for 24 h at 4 °C to get starch
deposition. The supernatant was discarded and the starch was
washed three times with deionized water, and then dried in an
oven at 40 °C for 20 h. The dried starch was ground into a fine pow-
der and kept in an airtight container at room temperature for fur-
ther analysis.
2.2. High hydrostatic pressure treatment
Pressure treatments were performed in a high pressure device
(high pressure press type HHP-750, produced by Kefa High Pres-
sure Food Processing Inc., Baotou, China) with a cylindrical pres-
sure chamber. The pressure-transmitting medium was water, and
the maximum working pressure of the unit was 600 MPa. The pres-
sure treatment of starches was performed in the excess of water,
i.e., using 20% (w/w) starch–water suspensions closed in 200 ml
polyethylene bags, precisely mixed, deaerated and heat-sealed
with a poly heat bag sealer. The HHP treatment was carried out
at pressures of 120, 240, 360, 480 and 600 MPa at room tempera-
ture for 30 min. The samples were pressurized at a rate of approx-
imately 20 MPa/min in order to minimize adiabatic heating. The
time course of the experiment began when the desired pressure
was reached. Once the high-pressure treatment was completed,
the sample bags were opened and the samples were vacuum fil-
tered, and then dried in an oven at 40 °C for 24 h. Each dried starch
sample was carefully pulverized with a mortar and pestle, and then
kept in an airtight container at room temperature for further
analysis.
2.3. Determination of light transmittance
Light transmittances were measured according to Craig et al.
(1989). An aqueous suspension of native and HHP-treated samples
(1 g/100 g) was heated in a water bath at 90 °C for 1 h with con-
stant stirring. The suspension was cooled and held for 1 h at
30 °C. The native and HHP-treated samples were then stored for
5 days at 4 °C in a refrigerator and transmittance was determined
389
at 0, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h by measuring the absorbance at
640 nm with UV–vis spectrometer (Perkin–Elmer, Switzerland).
2.4. Determination of swelling power and solubility
Swelling power and solubility were determined by a modified
method of Liu and Shen (2007). Starch sample (0.5 g, dry basis)
was combined with distilled water (30 ml) in the 50 ml centrifuge
tubes. Tubes were incubated in a shaking water bath at 90 °C for
30 min, after which the tubes were centrifuged for 30 min at
1500g. While the precipitates were immediately weighed, the
supernatants were further dried for 16 h at 105 °C and weighed.
The SP and S indices were determined as follows: SP = weight of
sediment/weight of dry sample solids; S = (weight of dissolved sol-
ids in supernatant/weight of dry sample solids in the original
sample)  100.
2.5. Determination of thermal properties
Thermal properties were measured by a differential scanning
calorimeter (DSC-Q20, TA, New Castle, USA). Starch (3 mg, dry ba-
sis) was directly measured into the aluminum DSC pan and 12 lL
distilled water was added with a microsyringe. Pans were sealed,
and were allowed to stand for 1 h at room temperature for even
distribution of water. The scanning temperature and the heating
rates were 30–120 °C and 10 °C/min, respectively. An empty pan
was used as reference for all measurements; every measurement
was performed in triplicate. Onset (To), peak (Tp) and conclusion
temperature (Tc) and the enthalpy of gelatinization (DH) were cal-
culated automatically, gelatinization temperature range (DTr) was
calculated as DTr = Tc To.
2.6. Determination of pasting properties
Pasting properties of starches were determined using a Rapid
Visco-Analyser (RVA) model Master (Newport Scientific, Pty Ltd.,
Australia). Deionized water (25 g) was added to starch (3 g, dry ba-
sis) in the RVA canister to obtain a total constant sample weight of
28 g. The slurry was then manually homogenized using the plastic
paddle to avoid lump formation before the RVA run. The starch
slurry was heated from 50 to 95 °C at the rate of 12 °C/min, main-
tained at 95 °C for 2.5 min, and then cooled to 50 °C at the same
rate.
2.7. X-ray diffraction analysis
The X-ray patterns of starches were obtained using an X-ray dif-
fractometer (XRD-6000, Shimadzu, Japan) under the following con-
ditions: radiation source: Cu Ka; angle of diffraction scanned: from
4° to 40°; step size: 0.05; step time: 2 s.
2.8. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
A starch sample was mounted on an SEM stub with double-
sided adhesive tape and coated with gold. Scanning electron
micrographs were taken using a scanning electron microscope
(S-3400N, HITACHI, Japan).
2.9. Statistical analysis
Experimental data were analyzed using Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA), and expressed as mean value ± standard deviation. A
Duncan’s multiple range test was conducted to assess significant
differences among experimental mean values (P < 0.05). All statis-
tical computations and analyses were conducted using SPSS ver-
sion 13.0 for Windows.
390 W. Li et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 103 (2011) 388–393
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Light transmittance
The influence of storage duration on light transmittance of na-
tive and HHP treated mung bean starches are presented in Fig. 1.
The light transmittance of starch show lower values obviously after
the HHP treatment at 600 MPa than other pressure levels
(120–480 MPa). The result also indicates that as the storage time
increased from 0 to 120 h, light transmittance of all the starches
reduced. This might be due to the interactions between leached
amylose and amylopectin chains that led to the development of
junction zones during storage, which reflected or scattered a
significant amount of light (Lawal, 2005).
Light transmittance provides the information on the behavior of
starch paste when the light passes through it and depends on amy-
lose content, swelling capabilities, and the level of swollen and
nonswollen granule remnants (Craig et al., 1989; Sandhu et al.,
2007). Higher light transmittance implies a more transparent
paste. The variation in amount of swollen granule remnants in
the starches refract light to different extent would lead to a differ-
ence in the light transmittance values (Craig et al., 1989). The more
swollen starch granules in starch pastes there were, the less light
transmittance was. Amylose aggregation and crystallization have
been reported to be completed within the first few hours of stor-
age, while amylopectin aggregation and crystallization occurred
during later stages (Lawal, 2005). In this sense, accelerated turbid-
ity development in HHP treated starches leads credence to the fact
that HHP treatment reduced crystallinity and increased the
amount of leached amylose and amylopectin in starch granules,
and these developments led to acceleration of starch particles
aggregation. As a result, the decreased light transmittance of
HHP treated starch paste could be attributed to its increased retro-
gradation tendency. This may be resulted from the fact that re-
duced crystallinity accelerate granules swelling and increase the
amount of leached amylose and amylopectin.
3.2. Swelling power and solubility
It is observed that both swelling power and solubility decreased
with the increasing of pressure levels from 0.1 (atmospheric pres-
sure) to 600 MPa (Fig. 2A and B). The significant differences
(P < 0.05) are observed among different pressure levels for swelling
power and solubility, with the exception between 0.1 and
120 MPa, and 120 and 240 MPa, respectively. This indicate that
the swelling power and solubility of starch would be more sensi-
12
Native
120MPa
Light transmittance (%)
240MPa
360MPa
8 480MPa
600MPa
4 destabilization effect on the amorphous region on crystallite melt-
0 peratures and peak time were steadily enhanced by the HHP treat-
0 24 48 72 96
Storage time (h)
Fig. 1. Changes in the light transmittance (%) of native and HHP treated starch
suspensions with different storage time. Values are the means of triplicate
determinations, error bars represent standard deviation.
tive to higher HHP level, and desired starch properties could be ob-
tained as soon as the desired pressure was reached. Swelling power
and solubility can provide evidence in assessing the extent of inter-
action between starch chains within the amorphous and crystalline
domains of the starch granule (Ratnayake et al., 2002). The extent
of this interaction is influenced by the amylose to amylopectin ra-
tio and phosphorus content and by the characteristics of the amy-
lose and amylopectin in terms of molecular weight/distribution,
degree of branching and branch length, and conformation (Singh
and Kaur, 2004). As a result, the information of structure changes
and molecular arrangement of the mung bean starch granule after
HHP treatment could be obtained according to swelling power and
solubility variation. Although the decreases in starch swelling
power and solubility have been reported for several HHP-treated
starch granules such as corn, barley, wheat and rice starch, it is
not yet fully understood how high pressure treatment inhibits sol-
ubility and swelling of starch (Oh et al., 2008; Stute et al., 1996;
Stolt et al., 2001). The possible explanation might also be due to
the formation of amylose–lipid complex within granules during
HHP treatment that led to the soluble amylose molecules less mo-
bile (Oh et al., 2008; Tester and Morrison, 1990), which inhibited
solubility and swelling of starch granule.
3.3. Pasting properties
The pasting properties of native and HHP treated starches as
determined with the RVA are summarized in Table 1 and represen-
tative curves are shown in Fig. 3. The RVA viscograms for the HHP
treated starch exhibited a significant (P < 0.05) increase in the peak
viscosity, trough viscosity, final viscosity and setback, and a de-
crease in breakdown viscosity and pasting temperature in compar-
ison with native mung bean starch. However, the sample which
pressured at 600 MPa exhibits the highest peaking time and past-
ing temperature value, and the lowest peak viscosity value. These
variations in viscosity properties, pasting temperature and peak
time resulted from the changes of granular structures during the
transformation of crystalline structure (Katopo et al., 2002). For
starch paste, viscosity was primarily affected by swelling charac-
teristics and leaching of amylose as well as by the branched
chain-length distribution of amylopectin (Hoover et al., 2010).
Peak viscosity is an indicator of early and rapid swelling of starch
granules with amylose leaching out of granules. The peak viscosity
results suggest that the HHP treatment at 600 MPa, effectively re-
strained the starch granule from hydration and swelling during
gelatinization, while the HHP treatment at 120–480 MPa has a
completely opposite effects for mung bean starch. The final viscos-
ity gave an indication of the stability of the cooled-cooked paste.
Changes in viscosity during a heating period gave an indication
of paste stability, and the changes occurring during cooling (set-
back) might show the gelling ability and retrogradation tendency
of the starch molecule (Zaidul et al., 2007). The higher setback
was observed in the HHP treated mung bean starches, suggesting
their higher tendency towards retrogradation as we have discussed
in light transmittance section.
The decrease of breakdown viscosity could be attributed to the
reduction in granular swelling. This reduction would reduce the
ing (Gunarathe and Hoove, 2002), which caused a higher tempera-
ture for starch swelling (pasting temperature). This was consistent
with the property of swelling power we had observed. Pasting tem-
120
ment at 600 MPa, the increase was up to 0.7 °C and 1.4 min,
respectively. The high pasting temperature of starch indicated a
higher resistance to swelling and rupture, which could be attrib-
uted to the compressive effect of the treatment that lead to a stron-
ger associative bonding between the starch molecules in the
 W. Li et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 103 (2011) 388–393 391

14 a ab b 12 a
c ab b
d c

Swelling power (%
e
d
8

Solubility (%
7
4 e

0 0
Native 120 240 360 480 600 Native 120 240 360 480 600
A Pressure (MPa) Pressure (MPa)
B
Fig. 2. Swelling power (A) and solubility (B) of native and HHP treated starch pastes. Values are the means of triplicate determinations. Mean values with different letters are
significantly different (P < 0.05), error bars represent standard deviation.

Table 1
a,b
Pasting properties of HHP-treated mung bean starch (30 min, at 20 °C) at different pressure .

Pressure (MPa) PV (cP) TV (cP) BD (cP) FV (cP) SB (cP) PT (min) GT (°C)

0.1 6207 ± 7c 2818 ± 46e 3369 ± 49b 4276 ± 33e 1493 ± 19c 4.2 ± 0.0b 72.0 ± 0.1b
120 6245 ± 4c 3292 ± 11d 2949 ± 19d 4767 ± 3d 1484 ± 6c 4.07 ± 0.1c 71.2 ± 0.4c
240 6957 ± 37b 3441 ± 4c 3517 ± 31a 4901 ± 10c 1461 ± 4c 4.0 ± 0.0c 71.2 ± 0.0c
360 6981 ± 36b 3467 ± 84c 3459 ± 29a 4803 ± 3c 1387 ± 14c 4.0 ± 0.0c 71.2 ± 0.0c
480 7425 ± 33a 4151 ± 16b 3278 ± 53c 6090 ± 118b 1943 ± 139b 4.0 ± 0.0c 72.0 ± 0.1b
600 5761 ± 35d 5346 ± 45a 324 ± 10e 7945 ± 75a 2570 ± 25a 5.6 ± 0.1a 72.7 ± 01a
a
All values are means of triplicate determinations ± SD. Means within columns with different letters are significantly different (P < 0.05).
b
PV, peak viscosity; TV, trough viscosity; BD, breakdown; FV, final viscosity; SB, setback; GT, pasting temperature; PT, peak time.

Blanshard, 1982). There are no gelatinization peaks detected in

9000 100
mung bean starch pressurized at 600 MPa, indicating a total loss
600MPa
of the native crystalline structure and molecular order. Complete
gelatinization resulted in the disappearance of the enthalpy of
480MPa
Temperature ( C)

6000 80 the endotherm peak (Ahmed et al., 2007). The endothermic peak
Viscosity (cP)

3000
0 40
0 4
Time (min)
Fig. 3. Pasting profile of mung bean starch treated at different pressure level.
granules (Moorthy, 1999). During the pressure treatment, the amy-
lose interacted with lipids to develop a helical complex, and then
the amylose–lipid complex intertwined with amylopectin mole-
cules, resulted in substantial crystalline structural damage, swell-
ing and dispersion of starch granules were restricted as well. As
a result, mung bean starch displayed a higher pasting temperature
and alteration of viscosity. These findings suggested that the alter-
ation in viscosity, pasting temperature and peak time following the
HHP treatment were directly resulted from the reorganization and
variation of crystalline structure within the starch granules.
360MPa 240MPa
120MPa disappeared with HHP treatment at 600 MPa indicating complete
gelatinization of mung bean starch.
Native
60 According to Błaszczak et al. (2007), the melting temperature of
starch depend on structural organization of the amylopectin clus-
ters, thickness of crystals and their polymorphous structure includ-
ing the free energy of surface side. As a result, the different
8 12 16 behaviors of various starches under high pressure treatment might
be attributed to the difference in inner structure of their granules.
The decreased DTr value after HHP treatment might be due to the
changes of crystalline regions in the granules. Gunarathe and
Hoove (2002) reported that variability in DTr values in the starches
might be due to the difference in the degrees of heterogeneous
crystal strengths. The narrow DTr range of the HHP treated mung
bean starch suggested the low crystallites stability within the crys-
talline domains of the granule. DH was reduced to a noticeable ex-
tent after HHP treatment, also indicated a decrease of crystallinity
of the HHP treated starch. The results obtained from DSC study re-
vealed the disruptive effect of HHP for mung bean starch crystal-
line, and suggested that the HHP treatment of 30 min at 600 MPa
was sufficient to completely gelatinize mung bean starch.
3.5. X-ray diffraction

3.4. Thermal properties Starch can be classified into ‘‘A’’, ‘‘B’’, and ‘‘C’’ types according to
their X-ray diffraction patterns. Type ‘‘A’’ starch is associated
A decrease is observed in temperatures (To, Tp and Tc), DTr, and mainly with cereal starches, the X-ray patterns of these starches
DH for pressure-treated starches compared to the native sample present stronger diffraction peaks at around 15°, 17°, 18°and 23°;
(Table 2). To, Tp, Tc, DH and DTr of gelatinization are decreased sig- type ‘‘B’’ starch is usually obtained from tuber and amylose-rich
nificantly (P < 0.05) from 120 to 480 MPa after pressure treatment starches with peaks at round 17°, there are also a few small peaks
as compared to the native sample. Similar results have been ob- at around 20°, 22°, and 24°; type ‘‘C’’ starch is a mixture of both ‘‘A’’
tained from waxy corn, corn, rice, potato starch and wheat starch and ‘‘B’’ patterns which appear in legume starches (Liu et al.,
(Liu et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2008; Buckow et al., 2007; Ahmed 2009a,b). X-ray diffraction patterns of the mung bean starch before
et al., 2007; Douzals et al., 1998; Stute et al., 1996; Muhr and and after HHP treatment are presented in Fig. 4.
392 W. Li et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 103 (2011) 388–393

Table 2
Thermal properties of HHP-treated mung bean starch (30 min, at 20 °C) at different pressurea,b.

Pressure (MPa) To (°C) Tp (°C) Tc (°C) DTr (°C) DH (J/g)

0.1 59.9 ± 0.2a 67.8 ± 0.4a 79.3 ± 0.9a 20.3 ± 1.0a 9.9 ± 0.2a
120 59.6 ± 0.1a 66.3 ± 0.3b 76.6 ± 0.1b 17.3 ± 0.4b 8.4 ± 0.4b
240 59.3 ± 0.0b 66.4 ± 0.0b 76.3 ± 0.1b 16.7 ± 0.3b 7.4 ± 0.2c
360 58.9 ± 0.1c 65.6 ± 0.2c 76.0 ± 0.2b 15.5 ± 0.3c 5.9 ± 0.9d
480 57.8 ± 0.3d 63.5 ± 0.3d 75.4 ± 0.1c 14.8 ± 0.2d 2.3 ± 0.3e
600 ND ND ND ND ND
a
All values are means of triplicate determinations ± SD. Means within columns with different letters are significantly different (P < 0.05).
b
To, onset temperature; Tp, peak temperature; Tc, conclusion temperature; DTr, gelatinization temperature range (DTr = Tc To); DH, enthalpy of gelatinization; ND, not
detected.

trend for the change of the X-ray pattern (Wang et al., 2008). The
results obtained from the X-ray analysis showed that the HHP
treatment at 600 MPa was enough to evoke a complete destruction
Diffraction intensity

of crystalline structure of mung bean starch. These results con-

firmed the above described DSC results.
Native
120MPa 3.6. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
240MPa
360MPa Scanning electron micrographs of native and HHP treated mung
480MPa bean starches are shown in Fig. 5 (1000), and the microscopic
600MPa analysis of HHP treated starch seems to confirm that high pressure
altered the starch granule structure. The native mung bean gran-
ules (Fig. 5A) have typical kidney and ellipse shapes with particle
3 13 23 33 43 size distribution, ranging from 2 to 30 mm (longer axis). The sur-
face of the native starch granules appeared smooth, without pores
2θ
and fissures. The mung bean starch treated with high pressure
Fig. 4. X-ray powder diffraction patterns of mung bean starch treated at different (600 MPa/30 min) collapsed and became ‘‘doughnut-shaped’’ as it
pressure level. is shown in Fig. 5F, and it is believed that this was the typical gran-
ular structure for pressure gelatinization (Douzals et al., 1998; Stolt
et al., 2001). HHP treatment did not alter granules size at the pres-
Mung bean starch shows the typical C-type X-ray diffraction sure levels of 120–480 MPa, but resulted in an altered granule
pattern with the reflection intensity at 15.08°, 17.2°, 17.92°,
22.92° and 26.34° 2h angles (Fig. 4). No changes of the X-ray dif-
fraction type are observed after HHP treatment at pressure levels
of 120, 240, 360 and 480 MPa for 30 min, but the intensity of the
peaks was slightly changed as a result of loss crystallinity during
pressurization. The small peak at 17.92° disappeared, and the dual
peaks at 17.2–17.92° amalgamated into a single broad peak. Addi-
tionally, peaks at 15.08° and 22.92° disappeared after HHP treat-
ment of 480 MPa, while pressured at 120 to 360 MPa did not
have such an effect. However, X-ray diffraction patterns of mung
bean starch pressured at 600 MPa for 30 min showed that starch
of the C-type X-ray pattern went through a transformation from
the C- toward the B-like pattern (Fig. 4). The intensity of the peaks
around 17.2° and 22.92° decreased after HHP treatment and such a
trend became more obvious when pressured at higher pressure
levels. This suggested that the crystalline structure of starch would
be more susceptible to destruct at higher HHP level. The result
coincided with swelling power, solubility and thermal properties.
This might suggest that the internal crystalline structure of the
mung bean starch was significantly destructed by the HHP treat-
ments. A transformation of the A-type X-ray diffraction pattern to-
wards a weak B-type pattern could be observed in all pressurized
starches such as maize starch, rice starch, waxy corn starch, wheat
starch and taro starch, while B-type X-ray diffraction pattern
starches kept their original X-ray pattern after pressuration such
as potato starch (Katopo et al., 2002; Stute et al., 1996; Hibi
et al., 1993). In the present study, the X-ray diffraction pattern
for mung bean starch (C-type) also displayed a conversion toward
a B-type pattern after the HHP treatments at 600 MPa. High-pres-
sure might provide a chance for starch granules to react with water Fig. 5. Scanning electron micrographs of native mung bean starch granules (A),
molecules activated by high-pressure and finally induced a weak HHP at 120 MPa (B), 240 MPa (C), 360 MPa (D), 480 MPa (E) and 600 MPa (F).
 W. Li et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 103 (2011) 388–393
shape and surface (Fig. 5B–E). Deep grooves in the central core re-
gion of the longitudinal axis were observed in HHP treatment
starch granules. Additionally, with the pressure level increasing
from 120 to 600 MPa, the shapes of starch granules became more
irregular and with deeper grooves, the higher pressure was respon-
sible for a more severe destruction of granule integrity. These
observations were in good agreement with the previous study on
high pressure-treated starches (Liu et al., 2008; Błaszczak et al.,
2005; Stolt et al., 2001; Stute et al., 1996). According to Błaszczak
et al. (2005), the outer part of the granule seemed to be more resis-
tant than inner part under high pressure. Such an effect have been
attributed to the external part which are composed mainly of amy-
lopectin that has a wide range of high molecular mass fragments,
while the interior zone is almost completely filled with gel-like
network, with empty spaces growing in diameter towards the cen-
tre of the granule (Błaszczak et al., 2005). That indicated most
changes occurred in the internal structure of the granule, while
accompanied with a significant morphology deformation. The
microscopic observations of starches treated with high pressure
seemed to confirm the above-presented suggestions.
4. Conclusion
HHP treatment of mung bean starch (C-type) suspension in ex-
cess of water resulted in a significant changes in physicochemical
properties, such as light transmittance, swelling power, solubility,
thermal and viscosity properties, as well as granule morphological
and crystalline structure. All of those changes were highly depen-
dent on the pressure level. The obtained results revealed the dis-
ruptive influence of high pressure on starch crystallinity. The
HHP treatment at 600 MPa for 30 min caused a completely gelati-
nize of mung bean starch. It is essential to investigate the changes
when mung bean starch suspensions are exposed to a higher pres-
sure. Further investigation is also required to reveal the exact
mechanism behind those changes by the high pressure treatments.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Key Technologies R&D Program of
China (2006BAD02B01). We gratefully thank the Crops Research
Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for kindly
providing the mung bean samples used in this study.
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