Abstract
Due to its favorable structural properties and biocompatibility, alginate is recognized as a suitable versatile biopolymer for use in a broad range of applications ranging from drug delivery, wound healing, tissue engineering, and food formulations such as nanodispersions. Rheological analysis plays a crucial role in the design of suitable nanoemulsion based coatings. Different essential oil and alginate nanodispersion compositions stabilized by Tween 80 were analyzed for rheological and conductometric properties. The results confirmed that the nanoformulations shared a pseudoplastic non-Newtonian behavior that was more evident with higher alginate concentrations (2%). Nanodispersions made of alginate and essential oil exhibited a slight thixotropic behavior, demonstrating the aptitude to instantaneously recover from the applied stress or strain. Oscillatory frequency sweep tests showed a similar fluid-like behavior for 1% and 2% alginate nanodispersions. Finally, it was demonstrated that advantages coming with the use of the essential oil are added to the positive aspects of alginate with no dramatic modification on the flow behavior.
Highlights
Alginates are abundant in the environment since they are present both as a structural component in marine brown algae, and as capsular polysaccharides in soil bacteria
The use of nanoemulsions in the field of food-grade packaging plays an important role because it promotes the development of a new generation of active edible coatings, that can conjugate the structural properties of the polyelectrolytes in the continuous phase with the characteristics of the oil fraction that provides a partial barrier to moisture loss and allows the solubilization of active lipophilic compounds
This shows that the positive features of alginate in the continuous phase were added to the advantages given by the addition of essential oil, with no dramatic modification on the flow behavior
Summary
Alginates are abundant in the environment since they are present both as a structural component in marine brown algae, and as capsular polysaccharides in soil bacteria. To guarantee the safety of this kind of product, different strategies have been proposed [8], like storage in modified atmospheres, the use of active packaging and the application of edible coatings onto the fruit surface. Nanodispersions like oil in water (nanoemulsions) enable the improvement of physical stability and performance of active lipophilic ingredients within a hydrophilic edible coating, give the possibility of enhancing quality and/or nutritional value of food products [16,17,18,19]. The use of nanoemulsions in the field of food-grade packaging plays an important role because it promotes the development of a new generation of active edible coatings, that can conjugate the structural properties of the polyelectrolytes in the continuous phase with the characteristics of the oil fraction that provides a partial barrier to moisture loss and allows the solubilization of active lipophilic compounds. Considering the use of alginate as edible coating, the goal of this investigation was to understand how the essential oil dispersion in alginate suspension affects the structural and fluid behavior
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