resulting in a more stable paste. A maize cultivar with a relatively high proportion of amylose starch, amylomaize, is cultivated for the use of its gel strength and for use as a resistant starch (a starch that resists digestion) in food products. Synthetic amylose made from cellulose has a well-controlled degree of polymerization. Therefore, it can be used as a potential drug deliver carrier. Dissolution and gelatinization When heated in abundant water, the granules of native starch swell and burst, the semi-crystalline structure is lost, and the smaller amylose molecules start leaching out of the granule, forming a network that holds water and increasing the mixture's viscosity. This process is called starch gelatinization. The gelatinization temperature of starch varies depending on starch cultivar, amylose/amylopectin content, and water content. Starch with water could experience complex multiphase transitions during differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) temperature scanning. For starch with excess water, a single gelatinisation endotherm can be usually observed in the low temperature range (54–73 °C). By reducing the water content (<64%) in starch, more endothermic transitions representing different structural changes can be seen because they become separated and they will move to higher temperatures. With limited water content, the swelling forces will be much less significant, and the process of gelatinization in a low moisture content environment could more accurately be defined as the "melting" of starch. Besides, the number of endotherms and enthalpies depended on amylose/amylopectin ratio, and the gelatinisation enthalpy of the amylopectin-rich starch was higher than that of the amylose-rich starch. Specifically, waxy and normal maize starches show a large gelatinization endotherm at about 70 °C; for normal maize starches, there was also a second endotherm at about 90 °C, considered as the phase transition within an amylose–lipid complex; In contrast, for high-amylose content starches (e.g. Gelose 50 and Gelose 80), there is a very broad endotherm in the temperature range between 65 and 115 °C, which is composed of the main gelatinization endotherm and the phase transition within an amylose–lipid complex. During cooking, the starch becomes a paste and increases further in viscosity. During cooling or prolonged storage of the paste, the semi-crystalline structure partially recovers and the starch paste thickens, expelling water. This is mainly caused by retrogradation of the amylose. This process is responsible for the hardening of bread or staling, and for the water layer on top of a starch gel (syneresis). Certain starches, when