Abstract
Soluble fibre β-glucan is one of the key dietary materials in the healthy food products known for reducing serum cholesterol levels. The micro-structural heterogeneity and micro-rheology of high-viscosity oat β-glucan solutions were investigated by monitoring the thermally driven displacements of well-dispersed microspheres via video fluorescence microscopy. By comparing the distribution of the time-dependent mean-square displacement (MSD) and ensemble-averaged MSD of polystyrene microspheres imbedded in four concentrations of β-glucan solutions, we found that the solutions exhibited perfectly homogeneous behaviour at ≤1%, but showed a certain degree of heterogeneity at 2%. Micro-rheology investigation revealed that β-glucan solutions displayed nearly perfect viscous behaviour at ≤1%, but the property changed into viscoelastic at 2%. Both micro-structural heterogeneity and micro-rheological property shifts occurred over a small concentration range, between 1% and 2%, of β-glucan.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1192-1198 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Food Chemistry |
Volume | 103 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2007 |
Keywords
- Micro-heterogeneity
- Micro-rheology
- Multiple-particle tracking
- β-Glucan
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Analytical Chemistry
- Food Science