1. IntroductionIn recent decades, t

1. IntroductionIn recent decades, the growing environmental awareness has

encouraged the development of biodegradable materials from

renewable resources to replace conventional non-biodegradable

materials in many applications. Among them, polysaccharides

such as starches offer several advantages for the replacement of

synthetic polymers in plastics industries due to their low cost,

non-toxicity, biodegradability and availability (Fajardo et al., 2010;

Simkovic, 2013). Corn has been the main source of starch commer-
cially available. Other minor sources include rice, wheat, potato

and cassava and starchy foods such as yams, peas and lentils

(Bergthaller, 2005).