Starch, in this case potato starch, is a product that is extracted by releasing the starch particles from the cells of this tuber. It occurs as a very fine whitish powder. It is widely used in the food industry: in potato chips, creams, soups and sauces, and in sweets and candies. The pharmaceutical industry uses potato starch to make dextrose, for filling pills and tablets. It is also used in paste to paint walls, in wallpapers, to finish fabrics, in cosmetics, toothpaste, shampoo… and biofuels, vodka, as a biodegrable substitute for polyestyrene (in bags, disposable cutlery…etc) and, of course, as a water-reactive adhesive, on gummed paper tape.
A curiosity about potato starch : the Lumière brothers’ first color photographic processing was carried out with potato starch. And other about the potato : itw as the first vegetable to be grown in space, in 1995 ; now NASA is studying the types of potato that would best be implanted on Mars.
