Characterization of rheological and structural properties of a gum from Balangu seeds

With the growing interest in all-natural foods, there has been increased study of sustainable natural sources of polysaccharides with suitable functional properties. Lallemantia royleana seed polysaccharide is one such material. Water-soluble polysaccharides were isolated from L. royleana seed to evaluate their chemical structure and rheological properties. The polysaccharide was consisted of neutral (62.9% w/w) and acidic (16.7% w/w) sugars. The backbone of the isolated rhamnoarabinogalactan was composed of (1 → 4)-linked galactopyranose residues. The weight average molecular weight (M_w) of the polysaccharide was 0.777 × 10⁶ g/mol. Rheological behavior of extracted gum was studied at different concentrations (0.1-2.0%; w/v) and temperatures of 5-50 °C. The extracted gum showed typical non-Newtonian and shear thinning behavior at all concentrations and temperatures. However, higher apparent viscosity was observed with increasing gum concentration or decreasing temperature. The quantification of flow activation energy using Arrhenius model showed a decrease from 29,931 to 8339 kJ/mol^-1. The mechanical spectra indicated viscoelastic behavior of the gum in all samples. Dynamic moduli increased with increased frequency and G' was always greater than G″, indicating a weak gel system. The results of this study will help to increase potential applications of L. royleana polysaccharide in various food formulations.