These properties were also influenced by conditions during the late growth
stage. In group ‘c’, after the end of the late water stress, hydration capacity and paste viscosity of starch decreased due to the transition from drought to wet conditions and resumption of plant growth, which was stimulated by the onset of rain (Defloor et al., 1998a).
When plant growth was resumed reserved starch was utilized presumably by hydrolysis of the less ordered regions in the starch granules.
This resulted in granules that were more inert and with lower reactivity to water. Because of this the inert starch granules present post water stress, had higher pasting and gelatinization temperatures; these were in group ‘d’.
For group ‘d’ the initial water stress influenced the pasting and gelatinization temperature, starch from the crop with initial water stress was more resistant to heat (Fig. 3.5,i).