starch

A substance found in plants. It contains sugar molecules joined chemically. It is found in high levels in foods such as potatoes, rice, corn, and wheat. It may be used as a dusting powder, a skin softener, a filler in medicine tablets, and a clothes stiffener.

The major plant carbohydrate storage substance, particularly but not exclusively found in seeds, and used both as food and feed source and for various industrial processes. A large water-insoluble heterogenous group of polysaccharides, consisting of various proportions of the two glucose polymers, amylose and amylopectin. Starch is broken down into simple metabolisable sugars in vivo by the action of amylases.