Research Article Characterization of Some Spelt Wheat Starches as a Renewable Biopolymeric Material Dorota GaBkowska, 1 Teresa Witczak, 2 JarosBaw Korus, 3 and LesBaw Juszczak 1 1 Department of Analysis and Evaluation of Food Quality, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 122, 30-149 Krakow, Poland 2 Department of Engineering and Machinery for Food Industry, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 122, 30-149 Krakow, Poland 3 Department of Carbohydrate Technology, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Balicka 122, 30-149 Krakow, Poland Correspondence should be addressed to Lesław Juszczak; rrjuszcz@cyf-kr.edu.pl Received 31 October 2013; Accepted 19 December 2013; Published 5 February 2014 Academic Editors: A. Buzarovska, T. R. Chantara, and A. Uygun Copyright © 2014 Dorota Gałkowska et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. he aim of this work was to analyze selected physical, chemical, thermal, and rheological properties of starches isolated from diferent spelt wheat varieties. he analyzed starches contained from 22.5 to 24.6 g/100 g of amylose and from 45.9 to 50.6 mg/100 g of phosphorus. Ranges of characteristic gelatinization temperatures,   ,   , and   , were 55.7–58.5 ∘ C, 61.1–62.6 ∘ C, and 67.4–68.2 ∘ C, respectively, while gelatinization enthalpy ranged from 8.87 to 9.96 J/g. he pasting curves showed signiicant diferences in pasting characteristics of the starches. he values of maximum viscosity ( max ) and viscosity ater cooling ( 50 ) determined for the starch pastes were in the range of 82.3–100.7 B.U. and 149.3–172.7 B.U., respectively. he starch pastes demonstrated non-Newtonian, shear thinning low behaviour and thixotropy phenomenon. Ater cooling the resulting starch gels were characterized by diferent viscoelastic properties, with a dominance of elastic features (G  > G  ). he starches exhibited diferent tendency to retrogradation, with its degree ( = Δ  /Δ  ) in the range of 21.1–37.4%. 1. Introduction Spelt wheat (Triticim aestivum ssp. spelta) is one of the oldest subspecies of wheat that is used by humans. Spelt has already been cultivated about 7-8 thousand years BC. Numerous archeological discoveries in Europe areas prove that spelt wheat could be cultivated as a bread cereal in the eighth century BC [1]. Most likely it was created by the natural intersection of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoocum) and goatgrass species (Aegilops squarrosa) [1, 2]. At the beginning of the 20th century spelt wheat was one of the most important cereals cultivated in Central Europe. Despite the close relationship to the widely grown wheat species, spelt wheat is very diferent from the last ones in terms of the many features. Spelt wheat kept largely the features of the wild cereals forms, that is, brittleness and fusion of grain with husk, which is beneicial for the survival and reproduction of the species, without human intervention. Nowadays, a signiicant increase of interest in cultivation of spelt wheat in Europe is observed [1, 2]. he reason for this is growing consumers’ demand for bread produced from this cereal species and a continuous increase in the number of farms focused on the production of organic food [2]. Spelt wheat involves very diferent, high-grade cereal species, extremely resistant to adverse weather conditions and diseases [3]. herefore, it does not require the use of fertilizers or pesticides. Spelt wheat grain has strong hull that efectively protects the seed from contamination by pollutants from the atmosphere. Spelt wheat contains all the components necessary for proper functioning of the human body [3, 4]. Increasing dieticians’ interest in spelt wheat results from beneicial composition of spelt wheat grain [5, 6], which contains about 56% of starch. Still in the husk grain of spelt wheat contains more protein of higher degree of digestibility and biological quality as compared to common wheat grain [4, 7]. Spelt wheat grain is also characterized by much higher fat content and its better quality comparing to other wheat species. Still in the husk grain contains about 2.7% of fat. Especially important components of spelt wheat are unsaturated fatty acids with predominantly linoleic, oleic, and palmitic acids [5]. Spelt Hindawi Publishing Corporation ISRN Polymer Science Volume 2014, Article ID 361069, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/361069