Thermal and textural properties of organogels developed by candelilla wax in safflower oil Article uri icon

abstract

  • We investigated organogel formation in dispersions of CW in safflower oil (SFO). Candelilla wax (CW) has as its main component hentriacontane (78.9%25), a n-alkane with self assembly properties in organic solvents (i.e., vegetable oils). Results showed that, independent of the cooling rate (i.e., 1 °C/min and 10 °C/min) and gel setting temperature (T set), the CW organogels observed a thermoreversible behavior. This was evaluated by the behavior of thermal parameters that characterized organogel formation (gelation temperature, T g; heat of gelation, ΔHg) and melting (melting temperature, T p; heat of melting, ΔHM) after two heating-cooling cycles. For a given CW concentration (i.e., 0.5, 1.0, and 3%25), the magnitude of ΔHM and T p and the structural organization of the organogel, depended on the cooling rate, the thermodynamic drive force for gelation, and the annealing process occurring at high Tset (i.e., 25 °C). At T set of 25 °C the microplatelet units that formed the organogel aggregated as a function of storage time, a process that resulted in an increase in organogel hardness. In contrast, at T set of 5 °C annealing occurred in a limited extent, but gels had higher solid fat content and microplatelet units of a smaller size than the gels obtained at 25 °C. The result was a three-dimensional network with greater hardness than the one obtained at 25 °C. The 3%25 CW organogels showed no phase separation up to 3 months at room temperature, with textures of potential use by the food industry. © 2007 AOCS.

publication date

  • 2007-01-01