Rheological effect of
Jennifer
Gamboa
Laura Miranda
INTRODUCTION
Colour is an important attribute when it comes to food choices.
It influences the perception of quality and flavor and thus the
acceptability of food[1]. Artificial food colorants (AFC) are
synthetic molecules capable of imparting color to foods [1].
Over the past century, a lot of AFC have been found risky for
human health, and some have been banned. On the other
hand, natural colorings are compounds obtained from plant
heme, animal, mineral, and microbial sources [2][3]. They are
known for being health-promoting but one of the known
drawbacks is their instability towards ambiental conditions[1][4].
However, the stability of these bioactive compounds could be
markedly improved with the encapsulation.
In this paper, we focus on the use of bixin, the major pigment
(almost 80%) of the total carotenoid content in Bixa Orellana L.
seeds extract [5], as a natural coloring in gummy candies. Bixin
is distinguished by having a color range between reds and
oranges; to behave as an antioxidant and other[6][7][8].
Furthermore, it is insoluble in water, therefore, as a solution to
this, bixin was nanoencapsulated using sodium caseinate
micelles [9].
Texture, flavor and color are important properties in the gummy
market [10]. This is the reason why the objective of this work
was to evaluate the influence generated by the addition of
nanoencapsulated natural bixin coloration attributed to the
degrees of solubility obtained from nanoencapsulation and the
possible presence of large particles due to the insolubility of
bixin without nanoencapsulation in the rheological properties of
the mixture used in the preparation of gummy candies. In this
work, we evaluated the rheological properties using mixtures
with commercial AFCs, with unencapsulated bixin and
nanoencapsulated bixin.
METHODOLOGY
Bixin extraction
Bixin extraction from annatto seeds was performed with
commercial 96% pure ethanol as solvent. Achiote seeds were
mixed with ethanol in a ratio of 1: 2 (annatto seeds: ethanol), with
magnetic stirring for one hour, following the procedure suggested
by De Marco. et al [11]. Finally, the seed were separated from the
solution using a vacuum Büchner funnel kit then the extract was
kept isolated from light.
Bixin nanoencapsulation
For the encapsulation of the bixin obtained previously, two initial
solutions were made. In the first one, 3 g of sodium caseinate
were dissolved in 150 mL of a binary mixture composed of ethanol
and distilled water at 40 and 60% v / v, respectively, at 60 ° C and
with mechanical agitation; For the second solution, 0.079 g of bixin
was dissolved in 2 mL of ethanol, following the procedure
suggested by Zhang, Y. et al. (2013). Subsequently, the bixin
solution was dispersed in the warm casein solution, maintaining
agitation for 5 minutes [10]. The resulting mixture was dried in the
oven at 90 ° C. After it was dry, its encapsulation was checked by
dissolving a little in water.
nanoencapsulation of bixin in sodium
caseinate as a coloring agent on gummy
candies
METHODOLOGY
Gummy candies preparation
The preparation started from an initial mixture of commercial sugar
with water (1:1) on low heat, from which a dense mixture was
obtained. Then, gelatin, which was diluted in cold water, was added
in a ratio of 1:1 (gelatin: water). After the homogenization of these
mixtures and without removing them from the fire, 5 mL of liquid
glucose, 2,5 mL of citric acid , essence and flavoring were added.
Finally, in order to visualize the change in coloration using artificial or
natural colorant, the resulting mixture was divided into 2 different
portions where artificial red colorant, and unencapsulated bixin were
added. After homogenizing each portion of the mixture, they were
poured into its respective mold; the molds were placed in cooling for
approximately one day, following the procedure reported by Aranda,
I. et al. (2015).
Carrying out the same procedure but with a slight decrease in the
gelatin concentration, and a slight additional water for the previous
dilution of the dye, produce the gummies with nanoencapsulated
bixin as coloring.
Rheological measurements
The tests were carried out on a DHR2 rotary rheometer-TA
instrument (Discovery Hybrid Rheometer) using a rough plate with a
40 mm diameter in oscillatory and rotary mode.
In the rotary mode, a temperature sweep from 60 ° C to 100 ° C was
carried out on the sample with artificial coloring and with
nanoencapsulated bixin. Increasing 3 ° C every minute, a cutting
speed of 10 and 20 s-1 and a gap of 2000 micrometers. This was
made in order to evaluate the change in viscosity as a function of
temperature.
For the oscillatory mode with a gap of 1500 micrometers, an
amplitude sweep was carried out at a temperature of 70 ° C and a
frequency of 1Hz, in order to measure the elastic and viscous
modules.
RESULTS
Figure 1. Viscosity as a function of temperature increase graph for the sample with
nanoencapsulated bixin at a shear rate of 10 s-1.
Universidad Pontificia
Bolivariana
Ingeniería en nanotecnología
RESULTS
Figure 2. Comparative graph of elastic and viscous modules for the samples with
unencapsulated bixin, nanoencapsulated bixin and with artificial colorant.
Figure 3. Comparative graph of the elastic modulus for the samples with
nanoencapsulated bixin and unencapsulated bixin.
DISCUSSION
Gelatin exhibits high flexibility of polypeptide chains and a non-
random appearance of amino acids . When gelling occurs, the
solution acquires elastic properties, although in part it still
maintains some viscosity properties, typical of its previous state.
Our results agree with the behavior of gelatin in the presence of
temperature changes. The mixture of the gummies with the
presence of nanoencapsulated bixin in Figure 1 shows a decrease
in viscosity as a function of temperature, because when reaching
the gelatin helix temperature or the denaturation temperature, the
triple helical structure begins to lose since the intra and
intermolecular hydrogen bonds that stabilize these structures are
broken, generating a decrease in viscosity .
In Figure 2, the elastic modulus predominates over the viscous
one, therefore, all the samples behave as solids, which agrees
with the results of Endress et al. In gels, an increase in storage
modulus is related to a higher effect of physical crosslinks or
molecular interactions such producing harder materials. According
to Phillips, G. O (2011), the triple helical regions in gelatin have to
be stabilized by three regions rich in pyrrolidine. So, for the elastic
modulus, at low gelatin concentrations, as is the case with the
encapsulated bixin gummy where it is possible that these three
regions may originate in a chain to give an intramolecular triple
helical structure that does not contribute to a gel network,
therefore it would be the sample with the lowest modulus.
DISCUSSION
The storage module provides information on the amount of
structure present in a material. This represents the energy stored
in the elastic structure of the sample. This agrees with what is
found in the literature where both the increase in particles and
the size of these causes an increase in the storage modulus.
Another significant finding was the identification that the gummy
with artificial dye has a higher viscous modulus compared to the
gummy with bixin without nanoencapsulation, and which is
attributed to the fact that the amount of sample necessary to
carry out the test was greater for the latter, since the rheological
behavior of the sample is altered by the presence of aggregates
of bixin particles, reason why it is considered that the presence
of the particles influences the quality of the bonds between the
gelatin molecules, inducing the decrease of the modulus which
agrees with what was obtained by Sovilj, V. (2013). On the other
hand, in Figure 2 is shown that the viscous modulus for the
mixture of gummies with unencapsulated bixin is greater than
that of the mixture with nanoencapsulated bixin, due to the
additional water that was needed for the dilution of the
nanoencapsulated colorant, which increased its viscous
behavior.
CONCLUSIONS
The new trends in the food industry are focused on the
substitution of artificial colorants, that tend to generate allergic
reactions, hypersensitivity reactions and possible causation of
hyperactivity in children, for natural colorants which exhibit
specific functionalities and health benefits. For this reason,
bixin was nanoencapsulated in sodium caseinate micelles, that
have emerged as an appropriate food system for the delivery of
functional pigments due to the increase in its stability, to be
used in gummy candies. However, in this market, the texture is
of great importance and it is influenced by rheological
parameters
As a final conclusion, the temperature, the gelatin
concentration and the presence of particles (even nano-sized)
influence the viscous and elastic response of the mixture.
Therefore, they are parameters to take into account, to a
greater extent, the amount of water destined to dissolve the
nanoencapsulated colorant, which generates a change in the
modules of the mixture
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