%0 Journal Article
%T Influence of Commercial Saturated Monoglyceride, Mono-/Diglycerides Mixtures, Vegetable Oil, Stirring Speed, and Temperature on the Physical Properties of Organogels
%A Omar Gerardo Rocha-Amador
%A Jose Alberto Gallegos-Infante
%A Qingrong Huang
%A Nuria Elizabeth Rocha-Guzman
%A Martha Rocio Moreno-Jimenez
%A Ruben F. Gonzalez-Laredo
%J International Journal of Food Science
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/513641
%X The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of gelator, vegetable oil, stirring speed, and temperature on the physical properties of obtained organogels. They were prepared under varying independent conditions and applying a fractional experimental design. From there a rheological characterization was developed. The physical characterization also included polarized light microscopy and calorimetric analysis. Once these data were obtained, X-Ray diffraction was applied to selected samples and a microstructure lattice was confirmed. Commonly, the only conditions that affect crystallization have been analyzed (temperature, solvent, gelator, and cooling rate). We found that stirring speed is the most important parameter in the organogel preparation. 1. Introduction Gels have been described as materials that are ¡°easier to recognize than define¡± [1]. Most of the times this problem comes from industry, which develops products with a gel name, just to be attractive to consumers [2]. However, gels have been accepted as semisolid materials comprising low concentrations (<15%) of gelator molecules to form a network self-assembly that entraps the solvent (in organogels both nonpolar components), preventing flow due to surface tension [3]. Gels can be defined both from a rheological behavior and from a structural feature. In a rheological point of view, a gel is a system that does not flow and has the presence of a plateau region of storage modulus and a low (<0.1) at an angular frequency from 10£¿3 to 102£¿rad/s. The structural definition is based on the connectivity of the system. Gel is a system consisting of molecules, particles, and chains, which are partially connected to each other in a fluid medium by crosslinks to the macroscopic dimensions. Then the loss of fluidity is the result of connectivity. Both are operational definitions and may have the possibility of exclusions [2]. Organogels have been attracting much attention in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields, where the erosion of gels in stomach and intestines is important for drug delivery [4, 5]; therefore gels erosion has been applied for this purpose [6]. As oils are safe materials and are suitable for lipophilic components [7], they are considered a good option for organogels elaboration. That is why food industry is very interested in this type of systems as a replacement of hydrogenated fats [8]. Thus, understanding organogels, definition is closely related to their characteristics and their crucial potential to develop new applications. Organogels microstructure is possible in part
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfs/2014/513641/