抄録
Quinoa(Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is the original food crop in the Central Andes area in South America. The major anatomical parts of the grain are the pericarp, the perisperm and the embryo. The pericarp usually contains saponins which are bitter anti-nutritional compounds. Therefore, the milled grain with the pericarp removed is used as food. The milled grain contains more protein, lipid and minerals than other cereals such as rice, wheat, barley, etc. Further the content ratio of protein, lipid and carbohydrate are excellent in nutritive quality. The carbohydrate content is 77.3 g/100 g dry milled grain, in which most is starch. Starch comprised over 50 % in the milled grain. The starch exists in a state of two kinds of particles whose sizes are about 20μm and 5μm in the perisperm. But all 20μm particles are split into 5μm particles by 0.1 % NaOH treatment. The median size of the starch particle is 0.90μm. The amylose content and the fine structure of amylose and amylopectin were investigated on four varieties of quinoa. The amylose content is between 4.7 and 13.8 %. Amylose of quinoa is a smaller molecule and contains more branched molecules than the amylose of other plant starches. The amylopectin of quinoa had the longest branched chains and showed a unique chain length distribution, compared with other plant starches.
