Avocado seed starch: structure, functionality, and applications

Avocado is a highly nutritious fruit with immense health benefits but with a relatively short life. Increasing consumption rate further incurs agricultural waste which includes avocado seeds. These by-products if not properly managed may result in environmental pollution, causing deleterious effects on human health; hence the need for value addition– production of avocado seed starch (ASS) is required. Therefore, this chapter reviews the structure, functionality, and applications of ASS. ASS is environmentally friendly, crystallinity in nature with a high yield rate (>40%), oval in structure, rich in amylose (42%–48%), exhibits higher gelatinization, low retrogradation rate, and better functional properties compared with other plant seed-based starch sources. Furthermore, ASS has found application in food and non-food industries.