other fabric upholstery within a room simple vacuuming of the granules removes the used particles containing the entrained malodors and then a fresh supply of granules can be applied at the convenience of the user the present invention also comprises a method for absorbing a hydrophobic material comprising the step of contacting the hydrophobic material having a clogp greater than 1 with a surface modified absorbent comprising a partially hydrolyzed porous starch matrix and a siloxane surface modifying agent applied to the porous starch matrix the hydrophobic material which is removed may be a material that is not malodorous but is nevertheless undesirable for other aesthetic reasons these hydrophobic materials typically have a clogp greater than 1 the hydrophobic material having a clogp greater than 1 may be a freely dispersed material in the air or the material may be dispersed in an aqueous based medium the hydrophobic materials removable or irreversibly absorbable by the modified microporous surface coated starch granules of the present invention are characterized by the calculated logarithm of their octanol water partition coefficient clogp the octanol water partition coefficient of a hydrophobic species is the ratio between its equilibrium concentration in octanol and in water since the partition coefficients are frequently.