Soluble Starch

Starch grains are insoluble in cold water but they readily swell in hot water until they burst to form a thin, almost clear solution or paste.  This soluble starch has been used for finishing textiles and in the paper industry.

Dextrin

When starch is heated or treated with dilute acids or enzymes it becomes converted into a tasteless, white, amorphous solid known as dextrin or British Gum.  Dextrin possesses adhesive properties and has been used as substitutes for mucilage, glue and natural gums.  Bread loaves brushed with dextrin aids in crust formation.  In steel manufacture, the sand for the cores used in casting is held together with dextrin.  Other uses include cloth printing, glazing cards and paper and making pasteboard.

Glucose

When starch is treated with dilute acids for a long time it becomes more completely hydrolyzed and is converted into glucose sugar.  Often the same factory that extracts the starch also converts it into glucose.  This operation is done in large copper boilers under pressure.  About six pounds of dilute hydrochloric or sulfuric acid are used for each 10,000 pounds of starch.  After all the starch has been converted, the free acids are neutralized with caustic soda.  The liquid is then decolorized with bone black and concentrated into thick syrup.  One of the common brands of corn syrup is “Karo.”  Glucose may be considered as an inferior substitute for cane sugar.  However, it is an excellent food material.  Its use is in table syrup, for sweetening, in candies, jellies and other kinds of cooking.  It is often mixed with maple syrup, brown sugar, honey or molasses it is used for making vinegar and in brewing. 

Industrial Alcohol

Starch is the source of an enormous quantity of industrial alcohol.  Maize and potatoes constitute the chief sources, although the other starches and even cellulose, various products of the sugar industry and fruit juice may be utilized.  The process converts the starch into sugar by means of diastase and the fermentation of the sugar by yeasts to yield alcohol. The operations are carried out under different conditions from those followed in making alcoholic beverages.  When fermentation has stopped, the alcohol is extracted from the mash by fractional distillation.  The alcohol thus formed as a result of the fermentation of sugar is known as ethyl alcohol, as distinguished from methyl or wood alcohol, a product of the destructive distillation of wood.  To render it unpalatable, ethyl alcohol is often “denatured:” by adding methyl alcohol or other substances.  Industrial alcohol is the most important and most widely used solvent and is the basic material in the manufacture of hundreds of products.  It is also used in medicine, pharmacy and other industries.

Nitro starch 

Starch and cellulose are chemically very similar products.  Cellulose reacts with nitric acid to form nitrocellulose while starch yields nitro starch.Nitro Starch   is a very safe explosive if the ingredients are absolutely pure.  Tapioca starch was originally imported for this purpose but during World War I cornstarch was used as a source.