The History and Development of Applied Glychemical Research

Keiji Kainuma - Honorary Member of Japan Society of Applied Glycoscience

The word ‘starch’ comes from Germany ‘starke’ which means strong and stiff. Starch or
amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate produced by most green plants and consisting a large number
of glucose which is joined by glycosidic bonds. Research on starch has been occurred for a long
period. In 1928, Robert P. Walton conducted a comprehensive survey on starch chemistry and
successfully recorded about 600 starches in his published book. Other researchers also worked to
propose a suitable model of starch structure to account its psychochemical chemistry such as Arthur
Meyer with his structure model of starch granule, Haworth with the laminated structure model and
subsequently Staudinger with the herringbone structure model of amylopectin.

The development of starch structure model was continued by K. H. Meyer who proposed a tree
structure of amylopectin in 1940. He also classified amylose and amylopectin based on the presence
and absence of a branched structure. This era was called as the dawn of modern starch science.
Following Meyer’s work, in 1942 T.J. Schoch established two methods including a fractionation for
amylose using butanol solvent and measurement of the utilization characteristic of starch as
polymer under the name of ‘mechanochemistry’. On the other hand, research group of Iowa State
University led by Dr. French announced a study using X-ray crsytallography that the linear chains
was belonged to amylopectin structure while double helical structure was suitable for amylose.

The study by French and his associate was expanded using electron microscope in waxy-maize
starch granules and showed that the linear chains formed segments of starch granules while branch
points were clustered in confined region. It was later recognized as ‘cluster model’ which became
the most revolutionary idea on the structure of starch. Collaboration between French and Kainuma
in 1972 also postulated the presence of double helices structure from the transformation of Nägeli
amylodextrin. Kainuma continued research in the development structural analysis of strach
component with the emphasis on the role of various starch related enzyme. This period was marked
as progressive development of sugar and starch industry in Japan after the isolation and lack
information period during midst of world war II. Modern starch industry using enzyme reaction was
born Japan including glucose isomerized sugar industry, oligosaccharide industry as well as rare
sugar production.

Current and future starch research and development will count on how far starch chemistry
utilize the result of deciphering genomes of plant. Currently, three plants genome have been
completely sequenced, and others are at various stage of process. From DNA sequence data, it is
estimated that Arabidopsis genome contains around 25500 genes. The rice genome is estimated to
contain between 32000 and 55000 genes. Genetic modifications are estimated to influence starch
synthesis including its production number and its expression or properties. Recently, Nakamura dan
Fujita have great expectation for the development of starch biosyntheis research using rice. They
intensively study amylopectin biosynthesis in rice based on the function of many isozymes which
encoding different gene expression. Using genetic level modification and development of crops
breeding technology, scientists hope that unique starch could be produced and useful for industrial
application.