New Zealand sweetpotatoes (kumara) (Ipomoea batatas) represent under-utilized genetic resources for sweetpotato quality. In this report, starches from 7 New Zealand sweetpotato varieties with commercial significance were studied for swelling power, water solubility, rheological properties, gelatinization and retrogradation. Diversity in these physicochemical properties has been recorded among the starches. Pearson correlation analysis showed that some of the internal unit chain parameters of amylopectin such as the quantity of fingerprint B-chain and length of B-chains are significantly related with the swelling and gelation properties of the starch. Multiple structural/compositional factors contribute to the rheological and thermal behaviours of the starches. Some of the sweetpotato starches had certain rather similar physical properties as compared to maize and potato starches (1 genotype each) employed for comparison. This suggests that these sweetpotato starches can replace maize/potato starches for specific applications.

新西兰甘薯（Kumara）（番薯（Ipomoea batatas））代表了甘薯质量的未充分利用的遗传资源。在本报告中，研究了具有商业意义的7种新西兰甘薯品种的淀粉的溶胀力，水溶性，流变特性，糊化和回生。这些物理化学性质的多样性已在淀粉中记录下来。Pearson相关分析表明，支链淀粉的一些内部单元链参数，例如指纹B链的数量和B链的长度，与淀粉的溶胀和胶凝特性密切相关。多种结构/组成因素有助于淀粉的流变和热行为。与用于比较的玉米和马铃薯淀粉（每种为1个基因型）相比，一些甘薯淀粉具有某些相当相似的物理特性。这表明这些甘薯淀粉可以代替玉米/马铃薯淀粉用于特定应用。