Formation and characterization of zein-propylene glycol alginate-surfactant ternary complexes: Effect of surfactant type

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 258; pp. 321 - 330
• Main Authors: Dai, Lei, Sun, Cuixia, Wei, Yang, Zhan, Xinyu, Mao, Like, Gao, Yanxiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 30.08.2018
• Subjects: Propylene glycol alginate; Stability; Structure; Surfactant; Ternary complex; Zein; Zein; Stability; Surfactant; Structure; Ternary complex; Propylene glycol alginate
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.03.077

•Zein-PGA-surfactant ternary complexes fabricated by anti-solvent co-precipitation.•Surfactant types obviously affected physical properties of ternary complexes.•Complexes formed by hydrogen bonding, electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions.•Ternary complexes exhibited better stability against pH and ionic strength.•Two kinds of ternary complexes showed different structure. In this study, zein, propylene glycol alginate (PGA) and surfactant ternary complexes were fabricated by antisolvent co-precipitation method. Two types of surfactants (rhamnolipid and lecithin) were applied to generate zein-PGA-rhamnolipid (Z-P-R) and zein-PGA-lecithin (Z-P-L) ternary complexes, respectively. Results showed that the surfactant types significantly affected the properties of ternary complexes. The formation of ternary complexes was mainly due to the non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interaction and hydrophobic interactions among zein, PGA and surfactants. Moreover, the thermal stability of ternary complexes was enhanced with increasing the levels of both surfactants. Notably, ternary complex dispersions exhibited better stability against pH from 2 to 8. Furthermore, a compact network structure was observed in Z-P-R ternary complex, while Z-P-L ternary complex remained the spherical structure. These findings would provide new insights into the development of novel delivery system and expand the options, when zein-based complexes were utilized under different environment conditions.