Here, it is presumed that the increase in solubility is directly linked to the occurrence of weak structure on the surface of starch with enlarged voids inside starch granule during HMT
(Vermeylen et al., 2006), which was supported by the results in Figs. 1 and 2. It is suggested that HMT starch may be easy for water to access to starch amorphous regions and the remaining unassociated starch chains could solubilize into water, and therefore increase the solubility of starch.