Award details

Elucidation of the molecular characteristics and emulsification properties of citrus and sugar beet pectins

Reference	BB/C503770/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Peter Anthony Williams
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Christer Viebke
Institution	Glyndwr University
Department	Faculty of Science,Health & Medical Stud
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	153,916
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/06/2005
End date	31/05/2008
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Pectin extracted from citrus peel and apple pommace is a valuable material and is widely used as an additive in food products because of its ability to form gels. Sugar beet pectin is obtained in large quantities in the EU (400,000 tons p.a.) as a by-product from the production of sugar but has poor gel forming properties and is considered as a low grade material. Recently it has been shown that both citrus and sugar beet pectins have potential to be used to stabilise oil in water food emulsions. The project sets out to fractionate the citrus and sugar beet pectin samples and to identify the components that are responsible for their emusification properties. The pectin will be separated into fractions differing in hydrophobic character using hydrophobic affinity chromatography. The chemical composition of the fractions (eg. sugar, protein, polyphenol content) will be determined by well documented procedures. The physicochemical characteristics (eg. molecular mass distribution) will be determined by gel permeation chromatography coupled to refractive index, UV absorbance and multiangle light scattering detectors. The surface activity of the pectins and their fractions will be assessed by dynamic surface tension measurements. Their ability to stabilise citrus and vegetable oil emulsions will be established from measurements of emulsion droplet size as a function of pectin concentration using laser diffraction. Knowledge of the surface charge of the droplets will be obtained from electrophoresis experiments. Creaming of the emulsions over time will be followed using Turbiscan. Identification of the key components responsible for the emulsification properties of the pectins may lead to changes in current processing procedures and will significantly increase the commercial value of sugar beet pectin.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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