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In order to achieve preparation of cross-linked (CL) potato starch with the maximum degree of substitution, freezing pre-treatment (FS) in different modes as three days freezing (3D), two freezing-thawing cycles (3D + 3D) and 6 days freezing (6D) were conducted. Thereafter, native, frozen and cross-linked starches were characterized for morphological, structural and pasting properties as well as alkaline and intrinsic viscosity. Regarding obtained result, freezing pre-treatment as 3D + 3D was found to be an efficient method to achieve high level of cross-linking than native and other modes of freezing pre-treatments when exposed to POCl

The present study was aimed to extend the shelf life of chicken by the application of gelatin (GE)-based films containing 1% TiO2 nanoparticles (GE + TiO2), 2% cumin essential oil (GE + CEO), and 1% TiO2 + 2% CEO (GE + TiO2 + CEO). For this purpose, the microbial [total viable count, total Enterobacteriaceae, total lactic acid bacteria, L. monocytogenes, and Pseudomonas spp.] properties of chicken samples were evaluated at 4 °C during 24 days. Besides, the physicochemical [pH, total volatile base-nitrogen (TVBN), peroxide value, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBA)] properties of chicken samples were also measured. The plain and (nano)composite films slowed down the growth trend of examined bacteria (about 3 log cycle reduction after 24 days). In this regard, the L. monocytogenes population growth was inhibited during 24 days. According to the antimicrobial tests results, the antimicrobial activity of GE + TiO2 + CEO was higher than GE + TiO2, GE + CEO, and GE, respectively. The samples packed in (nano)composite films showed lower lipid oxidation and TVBN values than that of the control. Meanwhile, higher sensory scores and shelf life were obtained for these samples from 4 to 12 days. The effect of CEO in the reduction of oxidation was higher than that of TiO2. Overall, all the used films, even the plain GE film, could effectively improve all quality parameters of chicken, which was more pronounced in GE + TiO2 + CEO. The results of this study showed the potential use of these (nano)composite edible films to prolong the shelf life of fresh meat.

Acknowledging the importance of medicinal compounds, flavonoids, and phenolic acids in plants and human health; understanding the best time to harvest plants to get the most potentially therapeutic biological activity; and predicting and controlling the quality of medicinal plants are very useful. The rich chemical composition of medicinal lavender, as well as its antioxidant activity, has led to its wide application in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. In the current research, seasonal differences in phenolic content; the main constituents of essential oil, essential oil yield, and antioxidant activity; and flavonoid content were evaluated. In this investigation, for all the investigated factors, three replications were considered as completely randomized designs. The predominant natural components were α-pinene, camphene, 1,8-cineole, limonene, camphor, borneol, cryptone, isobornyl formate, cumin aldehyde, carvone, caryophyllene oxide, and epi-α-cadinol. The highest rate of 1,8-cineole was seen in summer, while camphor and borneol showed their highest percentages in the cold season. Some of the compounds such as caryophyllene oxide, isobornyl formate, and cumin aldehyde showed their highest amounts in the spring with the activation of some important plant enzymes such as peroxidase. The total content of flavonoids and some phenolic compounds (coumarin and p-coumaric acid) increased when plants received sunlight for a longer time than in the colder to warmer seasons. On the other hand, increases in chlorogenic acid and vanillin were observed in spring. Also, the highest antioxidant activity was observed in lavender, which was accompanied by an increase in the important phenolic composition of rosmarinic acid in the cold season. Generally, this investigation provides beneficial evidence about the most appropriate harvest time for lavender to produce the most favorable constituents for optimization in food, pharmaceutical, and herbal products.

In the present study, the antimicrobial efficiency of thymol and thymol-nanoemulsion (NE) was investigated against S. aureus, E. coli, and C. perfringens on a sausage product during 4 weeks. The droplets size of the thymol-NE was 86.39 nm with the zeta potential of −0.86 mV. The MIC and MBC values for thymol were approximately twice that of NE, indicating that NE was more effective in inhibiting the growth of three tested bacteria. According to agar well diffusion test results, the antimicrobial activity of thymol and the NE was not different against three tested bacteria. In inoculated sausages with E. coli, C. perfringens, and S. aureus at 105.5 log CFU/g, the control had the highest bacterial counts, followed by 120 mg/kg nitrite treated samples, both of which had an increasing trend over time. In contrast, the growth trend of all three bacteria, in the samples treated with thymol (600 mg/kg), NE (containing 600 mg/kg thymol), thymol (600 mg/kg) + nitrite (60 mg/kg), and NE (containing 600 mg/kg thymol) + nitrite (60 mg/kg) decreased significantly (5.68–6.33 log CFU/g reduction in comparison with control), with no significant difference among them against each bacterium. The color quality of NE + nitrite and thymol + nitrite was quite similar to 120 mg/kg nitrite-containing samples. The bacteria growth followed a first-order kinetic. The results showed the great potential of thymol and its NE for being used as an antimicrobial agent in the meat products, and NE + nitrite and thymol + nitrite can be a good choice to maintain the microbial and color quality of the sausage products.

This study focuses on the fabrication and characterization of alginate-based films functionalized by incorporating nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). The effect of different NLC/alginate mass ratios (R = 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.35) on the physical, morphological, mechanical, and barrier properties of the calcium-alginate films was evaluated. The addition of the NLCs significantly improved the UV-absorbing properties, without greatly altering their transparent appearance. As the NLC concentration increased, the tensile strength, elastic modulus, and swelling ratio of the films decreased, while their thermal stability, water vapor permeability, and contact angle increased. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of the films revealed that NLC incorporation led to a more porous internal structure and a rougher surface. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis indicated that there were no new interactions between the calcium-alginate and NLC constituents within the films. Overall, this study shows that NLCs can be successfully incorporated into calcium-alginate films and used to modulate their physicochemical properties. In future, it will be useful to examine the potential of these films to incorporate hydrophobic bioactives such as drugs, nutraceuticals, antimicrobials, antioxidants, and pigments for specific pharmaceutical or food applications.

In the present study, orange fruit was coated with 1 mmol L−1 salicylic acid (SA), 10 g L−1 acetic acid (AA), 5 g L−1 AA + 0.5 mmol L−1 SA, 10 g L−1 AA + 1 mmol L−1 SA, and 10 g L−1 carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solutions to improve the postharvest quality of orange over 35 days of storage. The weight loss, decay, TPC, TAA, and mold injury increased and the AAC decreased throughout the storage time. The control showed the highest TSS, weight loss, decay, and mold injury and the lowest TA, L*, and b* values than the treated samples. Meanwhile, CMC, SA, and 5 g L−1 AA + 0.5 mmol L−1 SA showed the highest AAC, TPC, and TAA. The loss or increasing rate of AAC, TPC, TAA, decay, and mold damage followed a first-order kinetic model in most cases. The SA samples obtained the highest sensory scores. Overall, the application of SA, AA + SA, and CMC, particularly SA can be recommended for improving the postharvest quality of orange fruit.

The medicinal composition of rosemary essential oil has led to its widespread use in the food, cosmetic, health and herbal industries. In the present work, seasonal variations of essential constituents of essential oil, essential oil yield were evaluated. The predominant components of rosemary were: camphene, limonene, α-pinene, camphor, borneol, linalool, 1,8-cineole, (E)- caryophyllene and bornyl acetate. The highest rate of linalool was seen in summer, while camphor, limonene and borneol showed the highest percentage in cold season. Some of the compounds such as α-pinene, camphene, bornyl acetate and (E)- caryophyllene in the spring with the activation of some important plant enzymes such as peroxidase showed the highest amount. It is hoped that this research will provide very useful information about the best time to harvest the valuable rosemary plant and can be useful for the health, food and herbal industries that use this plant.

The effect of free cinnamaldehyde (CA) and CA-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) on the post-harvest quality of Mazafati date as a soft date cultivar was evaluated. Date fruits were immersed in sodium alginate (SA) solution alone or incorporated with 1000 and 2000 ppm free CA or CA-loaded NLC, then packed in polyethylene bags and stored for 180 days at 4 and 25 °C. The weight loss and the variations of pH, titratable acidity, and total soluble solids of the coated samples containing free CA and CA-loaded NLC were significantly lower than the treated sample with distilled water as control at the end of the storage period. The CA-loaded NLC treatments reduced the weight loss of the samples stored at 4 and 25 °C respectively by 32.7% and 55.1%, compared to the control. The total sugar content (TSC) significantly decreased, but reducing sugar content (RSC) increased in all samples during the storage period. The TSC and RSC of the samples treated with 2000 ppm CA-loaded NLC (stored at 4 °C) were 15.2% higher and 7.0% lower than the control, respectively. Total bacteria and fungi counts in the treated CA-loaded NLC samples were about 3.5 log CFU/g less than the control. The use of free CA or CA-loaded NLC, especially 2000 ppm CA-loaded NLC, improved the sensory attributes of the date samples. Overall, it can be concluded that edible coatings containing CA, especially CA-loaded NLC, can extend the shelf life of date fruit without any undesirable impacts on sensory attributes.

Antimicrobial biopolymer films were prepared by incorporating thymol-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) or nanoemulsions (NE) into Ca-alginate solutions. Thymol-loaded-NLCs with thymol/lipid mass ratios of 0.1 and 0.2 were prepared and then used to fabricate NLC/alginate films containing either 20% (NLC20 film) or 10% (NLC10 film) of NLCs. Consequently, these two films had the same total thymol mass fraction: R

Background Wheat grains are susceptible to infection by various toxigenic fungal species that produce toxic metabolites called mycotoxins. This makes wheat one of the most important daily dietary sources of mycotoxins for consumers. As germination is popularly used to improve the nutritional quality of grains, the present study was carried out to understand its effect on the toxin content of wheat seeds. For this purpose, wheat grains were spiked with ochratoxin A (OTA; 5 μg kg-1 ), aflatoxins B2 and G2 (5 μg kg-1 ), zearalenone (ZEA; 20 μg kg-1 ), aflatoxins B1 and G1 (20 μg kg-1 ) and deoxynivalenol (DON; 50 μg kg-1 ) in separate experiments. Thereafter, the grains were germinated and analyzed for toxin content during 14 days of germination using a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Results ZEA content did not change significantly until 14 days. The maximum reductions of DON, OTA and aflatoxins at days 10-14 of germination were 39, 38, 41 (B1), 60 (B2), 33 (G1) and 62% (G2) respectively. A 63% reduction of phytic acid at 14 days was observed, according to Fe2+ bioavailability. For all toxins (except ZEA), there were no significant differences in reduction after day 10. Conclusion Germination for 10 days might be sufficient to achieve an appropriate decrease in toxin content. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

This paper focusses on the characteristics of Na-alginate films (using glycerol as the plasticizer) produced under different drying conditions. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to study the effects of drying temperature (25–90 °C) and air flow rate (0–12 L/s) on the drying rate, glycerol content, sorption isotherm, physical, morphological, mechanical and barrier properties of the films. All aspects of the films properties except for color were significantly depended on the drying temperature; while the effect of air flow rate was not significant. The glycerol content of the films decreased with increasing the drying temperature, that subsequently influenced the other properties of the films. Drying rate, elastic modulus, and tensile strength increased; while thickness, elongation at break, water vapor permeability, opacity and monolayer moisture content of the films decreased with increasing the drying temperature. SEM and AFM observations showed more compact cross-section and more smooth surface with increasing the drying temperature. According to the X-ray diffraction results, the degree of crystallinity of the films increased with drying temperature. Differential thermal gravimetric analyses showed three distinct peaks. Water loss and glycerol loss peaks shifted to lower temperatures, while the third thermal decomposition maxima were not considerably different. The results of this study proved that the drying of glycerol-plasticized alginate films at higher temperatures, considerably reduces the drying time and highly influences and improves the overall film characteristics while imposing no defects.

The environmental problems of synthetic plastics in food packaging have led researchers to synthesize biodegradable films. In this study, nanocomposite alginate-based films containing TiO

The medicinal composition of rosemary essential oil has led to its widespread use in the food, cosmetic, health and herbal industries. In the present work, seasonal variations of essential constituents of essential oil, essential oil yield were evaluated. The predominant components of rosemary were: camphene, limonene, α-pinene, camphor, borneol, linalool, 1,8-cineole, (E)- caryophyllene and bornyl acetate. The highest rate of linalool was seen in summer, while camphor, limonene and borneol showed the highest percentage in cold season. Some of the compounds such as α-pinene, camphene, bornyl acetate and (

The rich bioactive compounds of medicinal rosemary, as well as their antioxidant activity has led to its wider application in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. In the present work, seasonal variations of phenolic, flavonoid content and antioxidant activity were evaluated. This experiment was performed based on a complete randomised design with three replications. The total content of flavonoids and some phenolic compounds (caffeic acid and quercetin) increased when plants received sunlight for a longer period of time than the colder seasons. On the other hand, the highest antioxidant activity was observed in rosemary, which was accompanied by an increase in the important phenolic composition of rosmarinic acid in the cold season. Overall, this study can provide useful information about the best harvest period for rosemary to produce the desired compounds for use in the food, pharmaceutical and plant industries.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of thymol and thymol-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) on inoculated sausages at 4 °C over a period of 28 days. To this end, sausage samples containing 600 mg/kg thymol, 600 mg/kg thymol-loaded NLC, 600 mg/kg thymol + 60 mg/kg nitrite, and 600 mg/kg thymol-loaded NLC + 60 mg/kg nitrite were prepared, and each treatment was divided into three portions to be inoculated with S. aureus, E. coli, and C. perfringens (105.5 CFU/g). The mean diameter and zeta potential of thymol-NLCs were 140 nm and −0.52 mV, respectively. Thymol-NLCs showed (two-fold) higher values for MIC and MBC than that of thymol, but similar halo diameters were detected for both against all bacteria examined in the agar well diffusion test. The control and nitrite-containing sausages showed an increasing trend in bacterial growth and the bacterial population was the largest in these samples. The bacterial growth within samples treated with thymol or thymol-NLCs was around 3.90–4.67 log CFU/g lower in comparison with the control. In this regard, no significant differences were detected between the thymol and thymol-NLC samples against each bacterium. A first-order reaction was detected for bacterial growth in all sausages. Overall, the higher antimicrobial property of thymol and its NLC compared with nitrite makes thymol a good alternative to nitrite with regards to its antimicrobial capability.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of acetic (AA) or propionic (PA) acid as a cosurfactant on the microemulsion (ME) characteristics of Thymus vulgaris essential oil (TVO). The results showed that addition of propylene glycol to TVO/AA or PA:T80/water MEs gave dilutable systems with particles ~59 nm in diameter. Plain TVO showed the highest antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, and S. typhi in in vitro antimicrobial tests, followed closely by AA/PA-MEs. The antimicrobial activity of AA/PA-MEs used as a washing solution on cucumber and strawberry samples was remarkably greater than those of free TVO, TVO nanoemulsions, and chlorhexidine solutions against E. coli and S. aureus. The sensory properties of the samples were not changed by the use of AA/PA-MEs at 0.05 or 0.1% TVO. The results introduce dilutable TVO:AA/PA-MEs for incorporation of TVO in aqueous systems for use as a fruit/vegetable disinfecting agent.

New active packaging materials were prepared consisting of biopolymer films containing the antimicrobial self-microemulsifying (SME) essential oil formulations or nanoemulsion. All the biopolymer films were constructed using calcium alginate to form a gel network with propylene glycol as a plasticizer. A mixture of essential oil (thyme oil), organic acids (acetic or propionic acid), and non-ionic surfactant (Tween®80) was used to formulate the antimicrobial microemulsion-films. The microemulsion-films were transparent, had little color, and were mechanically as strong but more stretchable than the control films (calcium-alginate only). Microstructural analysis showed that the microemulsion-films had high internal porosity and surface roughness, which resulted in an elevated water vapor permeability, opacity, and wettability. No new molecular interactions were detected in the films after incorporation of the essential oil using FTIR spectral analysis. The thyme oil was completely released from the microemulsion-films while only 3% of thyme oil was released from the nanoemulsion film when the films were brought into contact with water. Dynamic light scattering showed that the mean diameter of the oil droplets released from the microemulsion-films formulated from acetic or propionic acid were 38 and 28 nm, respectively. An antimicrobial assay showed that the highest microbial inhibition zones were obtained for the microemulsion-films. When applied to ground meat, the antimicrobial efficiency of the microemulsion-films was much higher than that of the control films against coliforms, Staphylococcus aureus, yeast, mold, and lactic acid bacteria. Our results demonstrate the efficiency of self-microemulsifying thyme oil films for maintaining the microbial quality of ground meat.

Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are effective encapsulation systems for many lipophilic bioactive compounds. In this study, a new approach of creating spray-dried NLCs was developed by mixing them with salt prior to dehydration. A NLC/NaCl suspension was passed through a spray drier at an inlet temperature of either 110 or 180 °C, and at a feed flow rate of either 5 or 15 mL/min. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of the resulting powders indicated that they contained particles with different dimensions, morphologies, and aggregation states. For instance, hollow composite spheroids were obtained at a feed rate of 5 mL/min (110 and 180 °C), while agglomerated crystals (110 °C) or discrete fine crystals (180 °C) were obtained at a feed rate of 15 mL/min. The presence of the NLCs within the powder particles was assessed by ash analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, and backscattered SEM analysis. Compared to the original samples, the particle sizes of the NLCs increased after redispersion of the spray-dried powders in water, but the mean diameters were still relatively low (

This study examined the effect of green tea extract at 10 (GWG1%) and 50 (GWG5%) g/L as the steeping solution on the chemical, nutritional, and microbial quality of wheat grain during 14 days of germination. Fat, dry matter, and ash contents in the control was higher than GWG treatments due to the faster growth of control germs. Moisture, phenolic compounds, thiamin, niacin, and tocopherols decreased, whereas, fat, dry matter, carbohydrate, protein, crude fiber, ash, folic acid, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, and Zn increased significantly in all samples during germination. GWG5% showed the highest values in total phenols, vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrate, followed by GWG1% and then the control. No significant differences in protein and crude fiber content were detected among treatments. GWG decreased the growth of total bacterial, yeast, and mold in germinated seeds. Overall, GWG improved the microbial and nutritional quality of wheat germ during 14 days of germination.

Sweet cherry is a non-climacteric fruit consumed more as fresh for its essential nutrients and phytochemical compounds. In this study, the single and combined effects of UV-B (21.6 kj/m2), UV-C (21.6 kj/m2) radiation, and chitosan (CS) coating 1 % treatments on fruit quality of sweet cherry were studied during 28 d at 4 °C. Sweet cherry fruit were evaluated for weight loss, firmness, total titratable acidity (TTA), pH, total soluble solids (TSS), ascorbic acid (AA), total anthocyanin content (TAC), antioxidant (AOX) capacity and total phenol compounds (TPC) every 7d. Compared with control, fruit quality was better maintained in UV/CS treated fruit. The UV/CS treatments significantly inhibited the decrease in the firmness, TAC, and AOX capacity, and the increased rate of weight loss and TSS in the sweet cherry fruit. Although both UV lights were effective in the maintenance of fruit quality, sweet cherries treated with UV-C showed higher TPC accumulation and related AOX capacity compared to UV-B treatment. Overall, the integration of UV lights (UV-B and UV-C) with CS was the best treatment that could strongly inhibit the increase in the weight loss and TSS and achieved the highest firmness, AA, TAC, AOX capacity and TPC. Our results indicate that the integrated management is a potentially effective method for preventing undesirable post-harvest changes and extending the shelf-life of sweet cherry fruit.

In this study, it was aimed to compare the rheological properties of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) in aqueous solutions and their corresponding emulsions containing 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5% CMC in the aqueous phase. Samples with 0.05 and 0.1% CMC showed Newtonian behavior, but shear-thinning behavior was observed in CMC solutions and emulsions with increasing CMC concentrations to 0.25% and 0.5%. Rheological behavior of all samples were modeled by Power law (R 2 = 0.986–197) and Casson models (R 2 = 0.968–1). According to the Ostwald–de Waele model, the consistency index of all samples was increased and the flow behavior index decreased with increasing CMC concentration. Comparison of our data with four predicting models (Einstein, Larson, Pal, and Dougherty-Krieger equations) showed that the viscosity of continuous phase controls the viscosity of emulsions with high CMC concentrations and these models are not applicable for such situations. Addition of CMC increased the emulsion stability of O/W emulsion...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of gelatin coating incorporated with Aloe vera gel (50,100%) and green and black tea extracts (5,10%) on physicochemical, microbial, and sensorial properties of fresh-cut oranges at 4°C for 17 days. Significant differences in terms of quality parameters were observed between the control and coated fresh-cut oranges. The highest variation of quality parameters was observed in control, while the least variations were observed in coated slices with 100% Aloe vera and 10% green tea extract. The weight loss was increased with time, but the coating treatment especially with 100% Aloe vera had significant effect on the prevention of weight loss. Also, Aloe vera coated samples obtained the highest score in sensory evaluation. Coating with gelatin incorporated with Aloe vera and green tea extracts successfully retarded the microbial growth and therefore extended the shelf life of fresh-cut oranges during cold storage.

In this study the effects of L-Cysteine as a food additive on wheat starch characteristics before and after gelatinization were studied. L-Cysteine (63 mg/kg, starch basis) was added to slurry of wheat starch in water (30%, w/w). One set of samples was prepared by mixing it at 40 °C for 45 min. Another set was gelatinized at 100 °C for 45 min. The scanning electro-micrographs of the samples prepared at 40 °C in the presence of L-Cysteine showed some spots on the granules. However, thermal properties, X-ray patterns and the degree of crystallinity of the samples did not obviously change (P > 0.05); while a reduction in intrinsic viscosity, peak and final viscosities of the samples was observed. After gelatinization, intrinsic, peak and final viscosities of the samples were reduced. Some of these changes may indicate degradation of starch molecules in the presence of L-Cysteine, particularly after gelatinization.

The objective of this research was improvement of apple hot water treatment efficiency by using acetic acid. The apples (cultivar Red Delicious) were treated using hot acetic acid solutions (1, 2 and 3%) at 50 °C for 1, 2 and 3 min. The results of in vitro study showed that treatment with acetic acid at 50 °C can significantly reduce the growth of Penicillium expansum spores. The treatment of apples with 50 °C acetic acid solutions, in particular 2% acetic acid solution for 3 min or 3% acetic acid solution for 2 min, had significant impacts in reducing the extent of decay of the fruit during the short time storage experiment, while this effect was not significant in the long-time storage.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pectin-based edible coatings containing orange peel essential oil (OPEO) at 0.5 and 1.0% concentrations on quality parameters of orange slices stored at 4 °C for 17 days. The variations of pH and titratable acidity in coated samples containing microemulsion and nanoemulsion were significantly higher than the controls and pectin-coated slices. The highest and lowest increases of the total soluble solids were observed in controls and 1% OPEO nanoemulsion samples, respectively. The weight and ascorbic acid losses of all coated samples were significantly lower than the controls. Higher antibacterial and antifungal effects were observed in the nanoemulsion-coated samples. In sensory evaluation, no significant differences were observed in the samples coated with microemulsion and nanoemulsion. The results showed that the nanoemulsion-based edible coatings containing OPEO can extend the shelf life of orange slices without any undesirable impacts on sensory attributes. Practical applications It is recommended to use edible coatings incorporated with essential oils to overcome the concerns of minimally processed fruit. Microemulsion and nanoemulsion of orange peel essential oil in pectin-based coatings reduced the quality loss. Also, higher antimicrobial effects were observed in nanoemulsion-coated orange slices.

In this study, the capability of a natural surfactant, lecithin, and the influence of ionic strength, pH, and temperature on some properties of a food grade microemulsion system were evaluated. For this purpose, the pseudoternary phase diagrams of canola oil/lecithin:n-propanol/water microemulsions in the presence of different salts (NaCl and CaCl2), ionic strengths, pHs, and temperatures were constructed. Our findings showed that the presence of salts slightly increased the W/O areas on the phase diagrams, whereas pH variation was not effective on the microemulsion formation. The expansion of microemulsion areas with temperature indicated the greater triglycerides solubilization capacity of lecithin based microemulsions at higher temperatures. These findings revealed the efficiency of lecithin-based microemulsion system for solubilization of triglycerides which can potentially be used for extraction of edible vegetable oils particularly canola oil.

The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of l-ascorbic acid, as a permitted additive in bakery products, on characteristics of wheat starch. Suspensions of wheat starch (30%, w/w) in water containing 140 mg/kg ascorbic acid before and after gelatinization were prepared and studied using different techniques. The results of scanning electron microscopy showed that some spots appeared on the surface of the starch granules as a result of the addition of ascorbic acid. However, no changes in the starch crystalline pattern and its degree of crystallinity were observed by X-ray diffraction technique. For ungelatinized samples, no difference in the pasting properties of the samples was determined by the rapid visco analyzer, whereas for the gelatinized samples, peak and final viscosities decreased for the samples contained ascorbic acid. Determination of the intrinsic viscosities of the samples showed that addition of ascorbic acid to the gelatinized samples reduced the intrinsic viscosity. In general, it was found that ascorbic acid had some degradation effects on wheat starch molecules particularly after gelatinization. Practical Application: Understating the effects of ascorbic acid on wheat starch functionality is important in food industry. Ascorbic acid is more effective on wheat starch after gelatinization. Ascorbic acid may have degrading effect on wheat starch reducing the consistency of the medium.