EXTRACTION, CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATION OF AMAZON FRUIT STARCHES: A REVIEW

Brazil presents a great biodiversity, being able to contain in its territory one sixth of the vegetal diversity of the planet, being most of it located in the Amazon forest. This richness in genetic resources indicates a high potential for use by humanity, especially with regard to new food alternatives. Starch is the main carbohydrate present in seeds, tubers and some fruits and its market has been growing and improving in recent years, leading to the search for products with specific characteristics that meet the requirements of the industry. Thus, this review aimed to present studies with starches from Amazonian fruits such as peach palm, babassu, cupuassu, pitomba and guarana. The peach palm and babassu are proven sources of starch, with studies evaluating their physical, physicochemical, functional and technological properties. The other fruits need to be better investigated in terms of starch content and yield and their properties. Thus, the identification and quantification of starch in these fruits are necessary to add value to them and possibly find native starches with suitable properties for application in foods.