Pulse crops have received growing attention from the agri-food sector because they can provide advantageous health benefits and offer a promising source of starch and protein. Pea, lentil, and faba bean are the three leading pulse crops utilized for extracting protein concentrate/isolate in food industry, which simultaneously generates a rising volume of pulse starch as a co-product. Pulse starch can be fractionated from seeds using dry and wet methods. Compared with most commercial starches, pea, lentil, and faba bean starches have relatively high amylose contents, longer amylopectin branch chains, and characteristic C-type polymorphic arrangement in the granules. The described molecular and granular structures of the pulse starches impart unique functional attributes, including high final viscosity during pasting, strong gelling property, and relatively low digestibility in a granular form. Starch isolated from wrinkled pea-a high-amylose mutant of this pulse crop-possesses an even higher amylose content and longer branch chains of amylopectin than smooth pea, lentil, and faba bean starches, which make the physicochemical properties and digestibility of the former distinctively different from those of common pulse starches. The special functional properties of pulse starches promote their applications in food, feed, bioplastic and other industrial products, which can be further expanded by modifying them through chemical, physical and/or enzymatic approaches. Future research directions to increase the fractionation efficiency, improve the physicochemical properties, and enhance the industrial utilization of pulse starches have also been proposed. The comprehensive information covered in this review will be beneficial for the pulse industry to develop effective strategies to generate value from pulse starch.
Keywords: functional properties of starch; industrial applications of starch; pulse fractionation; pulse starch; starch modification; starch structure.
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