Influence of the Homogenization Pressure on the Rheology of Biopolymer-Stabilized Emulsions Formulated with Thyme Oil

Different continuous phases formulated with ecofriendly ingredients such as AMIDET® N, an ecological surfactant, as well as welan and rhamsan gums were developed. An experimental design strategy was been in order to study the influence of the ratio of these two polysaccharides and the homogenization pressure applied in a microfluidizer on the critical shear stress for the continuous phases developed. A pure rhamsan gum solution was selected as the starting point for further study based on the production of thyme oil-in-water emulsions. The effect of the homogenization pressure on the physical stability, critical shear stress and droplet size distribution was analyzed for emulsions with optimized values of the rhamsan–welan ratio. These bioactive thyme oil-in-water emulgels could be considered as delivery systems with potential applications in the food industry.

A Comparison of the Effect of Temperature on the Rheological Properties of Diutan and Rhamsan Gum Aqueous Solutions

The rheological properties exhibited by gums make its use in applications interesting, such as foods, cosmetics, enhanced oil recovery, or constructions materials. Regardless of application field, the effect of temperature on these properties is of great importance, since these properties can be modified and cause the gum not to be useful for those conditions. Diutan and rhamsan gums are biopolymers, belonging to the sphingans, with similar structures which differ in the substituents of their side chains. It is known that both gums exhibit suitable viscoelastic properties and flow behavior when used as a stabilizer, gelling agent, or thickener. Both gums are widely used in food industry, personal care products, construction materials, oil operations, etc. For this reason, to know the effect of the temperature on their rheological properties is very helpful. For this purpose, small amplitude oscillatory shear measurements and flow curves, as a function of the temperature from 10 °C to 60 °C, have been performed, and the results obtained for both gums compared. The obtained results provide interesting information from an industrial point of view, since they reveal that the rheological properties remained almost unaltered in the temperature range assessed with diutan gum aqueous solutions, being slightly more viscous and viscoelastic than rhamsan gum solutions.