Abstract
A small granule starch from sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum) was subjected to heat-moisture treatment (HMT) at different moisture contents (MCs,15%-30%). With MC≤20%, a higher MC resulted in increases in the starch orders (i.e., short-range and crystalline structure) with unchanged granule morphology. Nonetheless, a further elevated MC (>20%) gradually destroyed the granule morphology and starch orders. Also, HMT gradually vanished the lamellar structure as MC increased during HMT. These structural evolutions in HMT-modified starch resulted in greater thermal stability, higher pasting temperature, lower pasting viscosity and weakened digestibility. Particularly, HMT applied directly in sand rice starch at 20% MC obtained the highest amount of SDS and RS (23.6%), which was 2.2-fold higher than that of native starch. Therefore, the small granule sand rice starch can be modulated by HMT through controlled MC to expand their application range in food production.