Authors
Title
Abstract
Among other things, shelf life of food products depends on interactions among proteins, polisaccharides, and water. It is possible to assess them based on the measurements of osmotic pressure in model systems: solvent – single biopolymer or a mixture of biopolymers. The initial research material constituted aqueous solutions of protein isolates: whey (WPI) and soy (SPI) as well as of aqueous solutions of polysaccharides: xanthan gum (XG) and inulin (INU). In the process of further research, aqueous mixtures of proteins and polysaccharides were prepared; they contained two or three components dissolved: WPI / SPI-XG, WPI / SPI-INU, and WPI / SPI-XG-INU. In all of the solutions, the π osmotic pressure was measured as a function of concentration and temperature. The values of virial coefficients were determined; they made it possible to determine the nature of interactions amidst the molecules of the solutions components. The results obtained suggest that polysaccharide – protein complexes have been formed. On the basis of the research performed, the mean molecular osmotic weights of XG and INU (1960 kg / mol and 126 kg / mol, respectively) were determined.
Keywords
whey protein isolate (WPI), soy protein isolate (SPI), xanthan gum (XG), inulin (INU), osmotic pressure, osmotic virial coefficients