Abstract
Indonesia is arguably a major player in worldwide rice production. Though white rice is the most predominantly cultivated, red, brown, and red rice are also very common. These types of rice are known to have different cooking properties that may be related to differences in their starch properties. Investigating the starch properties, especially the fine structure of their amylopectin, can help understand these differences. This study aims to investigate the starch characteristics of some Indonesian rice varieties by evaluating the starch granule morphology and size, molecular characteristics, amylopectin unit and internal chain profiles, and thermal properties. Starches were extracted from white rice (long grain (IR-64) and short grain (IR-42)), brown rice, red rice, and black rice cultivated in Java Island, Indonesia. IR-42 had the highest amylose content of 39.34% whilst the black rice had the least of 1.73%. The enthalpy of gelatinization and onset temperature of the gelatinization of starch granules were between 3.2 and 16.2 J/g and 60.1 to 73.8 °C, respectively. There were significant differences between the relative molar amounts of the internal chains of the samples. The two white rice and black rice had a significantly higher amount of A-chains, but a lower amount of B-chains and fingerprint B-chains (B(fp)) than the brown and red rice. The average chain length (CL), short chain length (SCL), and external chain length (ECL) were significantly longer for the red rice and the black rice in comparison to both the white rice amylopectins. The long chain length (LCL) and internal chain length (ICL) of the sample amylopectins were similar. Rice starches were significantly different in the internal structure but not as much in their amylopectin unit chain profile. These results suggest the differences in their amylopectin clusters and building blocks.