Rheological behavior of gamma-irradiated cassava (Manihot esculenta crantz) starch

Cassava starch is the by-product of the process of pressing water out of cassava to make cassava meal. The juice has a fine starch, similar to rice or potato starch that, when dried, yields polvilho doce (sweet manioc starch); from the fermented juice comes polvilho azedo (sour manioc starch). Cassava starch can perform most of the functions where maize, rice and wheat starch are currently used. The aim of the present work was to determine the influence or ionizing radiation on the rheological behavior of aqueous preparations of gamma-irradiated cassava starch at different concentrations. Samples of polvilho doce and polvilho azedo were obtained at the local market and irradiated in plastic bags in a Gammacell 220 with doses of 1, 3 e 5 kGy, dose rate ∼ 1.2 kGy h-1. A Brooksfield viscometer was employed for the viscosity measurements. The results showed a strong dependence of the viscosity with the concentration of the starch solutions. In most of the cases there was a decrease of viscosity with the increase of the radiation dose usually seen in irradiated polysaccharides. Nevertheless, the dose response relation of the two kind of starch was different. (author)