Glycogen-Surfactant Complexes: Phase Behavior in a Water/Phytoglycogen/Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) System

The phase behavior was investigated in water/phytoglycogen/SDS and C12EO20 systems. It was found that phytoglycogen was precipitated in the presence of these surfactants. Phytoglycogen in the SDS system was dispersed more homogeneously than in the C12EO20 system, and a liquid-liquid phase separation region appeared in the SDS system. In the C12EO20 system, the transmittance of a stirred solution in the single-phase region was slightly lower than that of the phytoglycogen controls, whereas the transmittance of the stirred solution was higher than that of the controls in the SDS system. It thus seems that phytoglycogen formed a complex with SDS and that this complex affected the transmittance in the single-phase region. Viscosity measurements of the aqueous solution supported the existence of such a phytoglycogen-SDS complex. These results enabled us to propose a schematic representation of the complex structure. It was clarified that phytoglycogen forms a complex with SDS, and that the structure of the complex modifies the dispersion stability of phytoglycogen.