Interactions between taste compounds and nanofibrillar cellulose were studied. For this, a new fluorescent indicator displacement method was developed. Two fluorescent indicators, namely, Calcofluor white and Congo red, were chosen because of their specific binding to cellulose and intrinsic fluorescence. Seven taste molecules with different structures and properties were successfully measured together with NFC and ranked according to their binding constants. The most pronounced interactions were found between quinine and nanofibrillar cellulose (1.4×10 4 M-1) whereas sucrose, aspartame and glutamic acid did not bind at all. Naringin showed moderate binding while stevioside and caffeine exhibited low binding. The comparison with microcrystalline cellulose indicates that larger surface area of nanofibrillated cellulose enables stronger binding between the binder and macromolecules. The developed method can be further utilized to study interactions with different compound classes with nanocellulose materials for purposes of food, pharmaceutical and dye industries using a conventional plate reader in a highthroughput manner.
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