Light microscope observations of iodine-treated starch suspended in water are illustrated in Fig. IB. The images show some purple-colored starch components outside the starch granules (light purple back¬ground), bigger, slightly-colored potato granules and smaller, intensely purple-colored waxy maize granules, typical of amylopectin stained by iodine (Obanni & BeMiller, 1996). After heating the starch-water sus¬pension (15 min, 90 °C), all the starch granules showed some swelling but the granules preserved their integrity (Fig. 1C). This would seem to show that the physical treatment (heating) of the starch allowed the forces bonding the starch molecules organized inside the granule to remain intact