Thermal stability of water-in-oil microemulsions containing solubilized nutritional protein gelatin

Abstract

To develop new food and pharma technologies, various combinations of encapsulation and delivery of biological macromolecules are used. Proteins, polysaccharides, fats and lipids must be conveyed inside living organism, protecting them during the stages of storage and preparation from exposure of aggressive external environment. Some of the most common food protein compositions are various gels and emulsions. In the present study, we focused our attention on the influence of protein molecules on the properties and dynamical stability of water-inoil microemulsion. Microemulsions, the oil dispersion of surfactant-based reverse micelles, each carrying nanosized water core with embedded protein. We studied the result of protein encapsulation in the water core of surfactant reverse micelles, namely, the fish and mammalian gelatin. The method of electric conductivity was explored to detect the properties of reverse micelles as containers for food proteins. We have shown that a rather high protein content does not destroy microemulsion structure, which retain reverse micelles, though the properties of the system undergo definite alterations, in particular, it substantively lost thermal stability accelerating exchange processes between reverse micelles at lower temperatures which have to be taken into account in nutritional and pharmacy objectives.