Organogels from trehalose difatty ester amphiphiles

Saccharide diesters have been recently shown to be excellent gelators of vegetable oils. In this paper, different fatty acid trehalose diesters were synthesized by a selective enzymatic transesterification performed only on the primary hydroxyl group of the trehalose. The resulting trehalose diesters demonstrated their ability to self-assemble in a large variety of edible vegetable oils with a minimum gelation concentration of 0.25 wt%/v. Microscopic analysis and X-ray scattering studies indicate that the gels are obtained by the self-assembly of trehalose diesters in crystalline fibers constituting the tridimensional network. The rheological study revealed that the properties of the gels depend on the kind of fatty acid grafted on the trehalose but are also influenced by the vegetable oil composition.