What is Difference Between Amylose And Amylopectin?
Amylose vs Amylopectin
Difference Between Amylose And Amylopectin is that These two molecules are the components of starch. Next, we will analyze what are the main characteristics of each of these polysaccharides.
How amylose and amylopectin differ
The starch is composed of amylose in a percentage of about a quarter and amylopectin for the remaining three quarters.
Amylose arises as a result of the condensation of D-glucopyranoses through glycosidic bonds. Molecularly it has a helix shape in which inside there are only hydrogen atoms.
Not all starches have the same proportion of amylose, for example, cornmeal has proportions between 50 and 75 %.
The main difference between amylose and amylopectin is that the form of the amylose molecule is of a helix while that of amylopectin is more like a tree with its different ramifications. In addition, the content of most starches of amylopectin is clearly higher than that of amylose.
In addition, amylose precisely because of its molecular structure is more rigid than amylopectin.
Another difference is that the one that is more abundant in starch is what makes them soluble in water since amylose is not soluble.
Finally, we can consider amylopectin molecules much larger than the others since the former can contain up to 20,000 glucose units per molecule of this polysaccharide.
Starch granules do not absorb water while it is cold but as the temperature rises its structure changes through a gelatinization process. This is what happens when cooking large amounts of cereals or legumes in boiling water. Therefore, this property is what allows the grains of rice, corn, wheat, and many other plant species to be cooked.
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