Structural characteristics and physicochemical properties of starches from winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) and pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex Poir.)

Winter squash (Cucurbita maxima Duch.) and pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex Poir.) are widely consumed in the world. Empirical evidences showed that their cooked texture was related to the starch content and probably starch properties. In this study, starches were extracted from 2 winter squash cultivars (Yinli and Heili) and 1 pumpkin cultivar (Miben) popularly cultivated in China. The mature fruits of three cultivars contained 1.05–6.47% (fresh weight) starch with different granule sizes (d (0.5) 9.51–15.18 μm). Starches from winter squash and pumpkin had polyhedral and spherical shape granules with amylose content varied from 21.35% to 30.17%. All starches exhibited B-type crystalline structure. The relative crystallinity ranged from 26.15% to 31.31%, and the IR absorbance ratios of 1022/995 cm−1 and 1045/1022 cm−1 ranged from 0.759 to 0.806 and from 0.565 to 0.607, respectively, among 3 cultivars. SAXS pattern indicated 9.59–9.80 nm DBragg for these starches. The Mw was highest (5.03 × 107 g/mol) in Miben starch but lowest (3.64 × 107 g/mol) in Heili starch. All starches had identical amylopectin branch chain distributions but varied in average chain length and fb1 and fb2 chains. The gelatinization temperature (To, Tp, Tc) and enthalpy change (ΔH) were lowest in Heili starch and highest in Miben starch. The peak, trough, final and setback viscosities varied from 4468 to 6266 cP, 3116 to 4259.5 cP, 4075 to 6073 cP, and 787 to 1813 cP, respectively. All starch granules showed strong resistance to enzymatic hydrolysis. Yinli and Miben starches had higher RS content in starch pastes and retrograded gels than Heili starch.