Usage of Starch in Leather Making

In recent years, various industries begin to head towards cleaner production due to increasingly restrictive regulations. Therefore, production from natural and renewable sources has become more important. Starch is a remarkable raw material because it is abundant, inexpensive and biodegradable natural polymer. The use of natural starch has remained limited, to be usually for food purposes, until recent decades. However, the usage of starch has increased significantly over the last few decades; via modification some of the properties of the starch and it has found wide range of applications in many industries such as plastics, agriculture, pharmaceutics, adhesive, textile, paper and food. In recent years, several studies have taken part in literature on possible use of modified starches also in leather industry – especially in tanning and retanning processes to ensure cleaner production. And it seems that starch products that modified with various methods in accordance their field of use will find more interest and use in leather making. For this reason in the present paper it is aimed to make an overview on the structure of starch as a renewable and natural resource and its potential applications in leather making.