Food‐grade bicontinuous microemulsions

Abstract

Microemulsions stabilized by sucrose esters in combination with lecithin are interesting flavour delivery systems because they allow the solubilization of very high levels of oil into an aqueous phase with relatively small amounts of surfactants. The aim of this study was to investigate microemulsions stabilized by these surfactants in order to determine the microemulsion type and the solubilizing capacity of the structures. Based on these results a good control and easy handling of the delivery systems is feasible. Pulsed Field Gradient (PFG) diffusion nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed that at some specific ratios between both surfactants the formation of bicontinuous microemulsions takes place. In such systems, between 20% and 60% of the oil phase can be solubilized. The solubilization of lecithin in the flavour oil and the insertion of this mixture into a system containing direct micelles of sucrose ester changes the curvature of structures and allows the continuous transition from direct oil/water to bicontinuous structures to inverse water/oil microemulsions. In such inverse microemulsions up to 80% of flavour oil can be solubilized. Our investigation demonstrates that the presence of lecithin leads to an increase of the flavour oil loading, decreasing significantly the total surfactant concentration. Therefore, lecithin can be used as a tuning parameter to control the different types of microemulsions without additional hydrotropes and they can be easily adapted to different industrial applications. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Microemulsions Based on a Sunflower Lecithin–Tween 20 Blend Have High Capacity for Dissolving Peppermint Oil and Stabilizing Coenzyme Q10

“…A higher viscosity of microemulsions with higher contents of peppermint oil and lecithin is expected. The trend agreed with the literature microemulsion systems with isopropyl myristate dissolved by a soybean lecithin and Tween 80 mixture and orange oil by a sucrose laurate/soybean lecithin mixture. , …”

“…The trend agreed with the literature microemulsion systems with isopropyl myristate dissolved by a soybean lecithin and Tween 80 mixture and orange oil by a sucrose laurate/soybean lecithin mixture. 29,32 Stability of Microemulsions after Dilution. The stability of microemulsions diluted 50-, 100-, and 200-fold using diwater was monitored at 240 and 600 nm to indicate the chemical stability of peppermint oil and physical stability (turbidity), respectively, at 21 °C for up to 72 h. The wavelength of 240 nm, corresponding to the maximum absorbance of peppermint oil in the UV/vis regime, was used to monitor the amount of peppermint oil.…”

Lecithins: A comprehensive review of their properties and their use in formulating microemulsions

“…It is also worth mentioning that edible ingredients must not exceed the permitted limit established in each country. These restrictions make it challenging to formulate food‐grade microemulsions, considering that surfactants and co‐surfactants are frequently needed at high concentrations to attain the bicontinuous structure (Patel et al, 2006; Tchakalova et al, 2014).…”

“…These essential oils contain nonsaponifiable lipids, such as terpenes, that show powerful detergency properties (solubilization) (Garti et al, 2001). For example, limonene (Papadimitriou et al, 2008; Spernath et al, 2006), peppermint essential oil (Chen et al, 2015; Chen & Zhong, 2015; Lin et al, 2009), citrus essential oil (Tchakalova et al, 2014), ethyl laurate (Spernath et al, 2006), ethyl oleate (Lin et al, 2009, 2014), and isopropyl myristate (Patel et al, 2006).…”

The Effect of Length Scale on Flow Properties of Micro, Nano and Macro-Emulsions

“…Hence a size increase is expected due to the addition of the oil which is confirmed by DLS (Table 3-8). This results in the viscosity increasing over the Newtonian region [62]. In Table 3-8, both the surfactant ternary system and microemulsion droplet sizes are given.…”