The difference in the gelatinization enthalpies observed in the course of ripening (Table 2) may be due to changes in
the starch intermolecular bonds.
The fact that DH was lowest in starch isolated from cherimoya stored 4 days at 20 1C suggests that the structure of this starch is less ordered or denser than others.
Cooke and Gidley (1992) asserted that gelatinization enthalpy of starch was highly dependent on the loss of double helical order.
A minusorder starch needs less energy to break intermolecular bonds and to swell the granules.
The physiological consequences of this phenomenon are unknown, and further experiments will be required to explain it.