Dextrin, roasted starch or pyro-dextrins: it was a purely accidental discovery that played the biggest role in the development of dextrin.

In September 1821 a fire broke out in a textile mill near Dublin, Ireland. Potato starch was stored in an adjacent building, which was partially destroyed by the fire. After the fire the brown coloured powder which was left was found to be soluble in water and gave a sticky solution. It was then discovered the same result could be obtained by heating starch in an iron pan. If this story is true, and it seems well authenticated, it is slightly ironic the roasted starch became known as British gum.

Later, in 1833 starch roasting in the presence of acid was investigated by Biot and Persoz, who examined the products obtained and gave the name 'dextrin' to the gummy material they separated due to the direction of its optical rotation.

It was much later that a process was commercialised. Under controlled conditions of heat and pH - a range of dextrin products now finds its way into many application areas. AVEBE has been active as a producer since 1873, and has outstanding experience to produce a consistent and high quality line of AVEDEX ^® dextrin.

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