Abstract. Yusra S, Hidayat C, Pranoto Y, Anwar C. 2020. Physical and chemical characteristics of stem starch and sheath flour from oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). Biodiversitas 21: 896-902. Replanting old oil palm plantation with a new plant produces a large volume of cleared trees. Yet, the utilization of these by-products is still limited. The objective of this research was to explore and characterize the physicochemical properties of the oil palm stem starch (SS) and sheath flour (SF). SF

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... and SS were extracted by a wet extraction method. Results showed that starch contents of SS and SF (after three times of washing) were 95.56±0.01% and 37.03 ± 0.72%, respectively. Amylose and amylopectin contents of SS were higher than that of sheath starch. Besides, SF contained high protein (19.28% db) and lipid (9.27% db). Protein was also confirmed by FTIR analysis. SF also contained polyphenol. The starch granular was smooth with a clean surface. The granules of SF are classified as very small granules (2-5 µm) while those of SS as small to medium granules (5-25 µm). Polymorph analysis showed that SF and SS had a type-C and B-type, respectively. SF did not have pasting temperature due to the presence of lipid, protein, and polyphenol. Washing of the flour with water decreased protein, lipid and ash contents. It resulted in a decrease in yield about 1.8 times. SS has a pasting temperature of about 71.55°C. Paste viscosity reached a maximum of about 5707 cps. In conclusion, SS that had high viscosity may be used as a thickener and SF may be used for a source of the modified starch to produce such as dextrin and glucose syrup.