Damage on starch from processing Andean food plants

Abstract

Many of the cultivated plant species in the world originated in the Americas, the Andean Area being one of the most prolific regions. Among the food crops there are tubers, cereals, pseudocereals, and legumes. Many procedures for preserving, processing and cooking of these Andean starchy resources are necessary to make them edible and may be tracked far away in time. These procedures generate physicochemical changes in starchy materials that modify the degree of cristallinity, completeness and appearance of some of their starch grains. Knowledge of how starch may be culturally modified is of interest for Archaeology because it enhances the possibility of recognizing cultural actions by analyzing damaged grains in tools and sediments from archaeological samples.