The arrangement of amylose and amylopectin within the starch granule is not completely understood. The “packaging” of these two polymers in the native starch granule is not random but is very orga- nized. When heated in the presence of water, however, starch granules become much less ordered. This loss of internal order occurs at different temperatures for different types of starch. Depending on the starch, if it is heated in water indefinitely, the native granule swells until its structure eventually disintegrates, and amylose and amylopectin are released into an aqueous suspension. Much of what is known about the internal structure is the result of microscopic evaluation of partially degraded granules. Compared with crystalline areas, amorphous areas of the granule are generally degraded more easily by acid and enzymes, such as α-amylase. Granules exhaustively treated in this manner demonstrate a ringed pattern analogous to the growth rings on a crosscut piece of wood from a tree trunk (Fig. 1-7). This pattern indicates that the crys- talline and amorphous areas of the granule alternate. It is thought that this configuration results from alternating periods of growth and rest during the synthesis of the starch granule (8).