Hydrobiologia

, Volume 260, Issue 1, pp 583–588 | Cite as

Using elasticity/temperature relationships to characterise gelling carrageenans

  • A. Parker
7. Chemical composition

Abstract

Carrageenan characterisation by chemical means is long and complex. 13C NMR is undoubtedly the technique providing the most information, but the apparatus is expensive and measurement times are long. For several important problems in carrageenan characterisation, rheological methods provide quantitative information, comparable, for practical purposes, with that obtained by NMR. In particular, the apparent elastic modulus (G′app) is followed as a function of temperature, during cooling.

Small amounts of kappa carrageenan in supposedly pure samples of the iota form have a great impact on the rheology and apparent ion selectivity of the latter. Using the elasticity/temperature relationship, as little as 2% of the kappa form can be detected in samples of iota carrageenan.

The fraction of precursor sugars is another important parameter in the gelling of carrageenans. The form of the elasticity/temperature function is strongly dependent on the fraction of precursor sugars.

Finally, it is shown that the elasticity/temperature relationship can provide a useful ‘fingerprint’ of heterogeneous carrageenans.

Key words

carrageenans characterisation gelling rheology 
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1993

Authors and Affiliations

  • A. Parker
    • 1
  1. 1.Research LaboratorySanofi Bio-IndustriesCarentanFrance

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