In this work, an environment-friendly and recyclable system was developed for converting waxy corn starch to HMF, with boric acid and choline chloride acting as co-catalysts, and a biphasic medium of water-MIBK or water-THF used as solvent. A central composite design based Response Surface Methodology was used to optimise the reaction parameters. The highest HMF yield obtained for water-MIBK was 35.9mol%, while for water-THF, a maximum yield of 60.3mol% was attained. However, the water-MIBK system was more recyclable, with minimal decrease in HMF yields observed even after ten rounds of reuse. Therefore, this system merits further investigation with other feedstock and on a larger scale. [GRAPHICS] .