Structural and emulsion stabilizing properties of pectin rich extracts obtained from different botanical sources

The presented research studied the emulsifying and emulsion stabilizing capacity of pectin samples isolated from different plant origin: apple, carrot, onion and tomato. The acid extracted pectin samples showed distinct structural properties. Specifically, apple pectin showed a high degree of methylesterification (78.41 ± 0.83%), carrot pectin had the lowest concentration of other co-eluted cell wall polymers, onion pectin displayed a bimodal molar mass distribution suggesting two polymer fractions with different molar mass and tomato pectin was characterized by a high protein content (16.48 ± 0.05%). The evaluation of the emulsifying and emulsion stabilizing potential of the pectin samples included investigating their ability to lower the interfacial tension next to a storage stability study of pectin stabilized o/w emulsions. Creaming behavior as well as the evolution of the oil droplet size were thoroughly examined during storage using multiple analytical techniques. Overall, smaller oil droplet sizes were obtained at pH 2.5 compared to pH 6.0 indicating better emulsifying capacity at lower pH. The lowest emulsion stability was observed in emulsions formulated with tomato pectin in which weak flocculation and relatively fast creaming affected emulsion stability. Onion pectin clearly showed the most promising emulsifying and emulsion stabilizing potential. At both pH conditions, emulsions stabilized by the onion pectin sample displayed highly stable oil droplet sizes during the whole storage period. The presence of the two polymer fractions in this sample can play an important role in the observed stability. In future work, it could be evaluated if both fractions contribute to emulsion stability in a synergistic way. In conclusion, this work showed that pectin samples extracted from different plant origin display diverse structural properties resulting in varying emulsifying and emulsion stabilizing potential. Polymer molar mass potentially plays a major role in the structure-function relation.