Components responsible for the emulsification properties of corn fibre gum

An emulsion was prepared using corn fibre gum (CFG) and the resulting oil and aqueous phases were separated by centrifugation. The material adsorbed onto the surface of the oil droplets in the oil phase was desorbed using surfactant. The desorbed CFG and the non-adsorbed CFG that remained present in the aqueous phase were collected, precipitated using alcohol and freeze dried. Their sugar composition, phenolic acid, lipid and protein contents were determined. There was no consistent difference observed in the sugar composition, phenolic acid and lipid contents of the original material and the adsorbed and non-adsorbed fractions. There was, however, a significant difference in the protein contents with the adsorbed fraction containing similar to 10.7% protein compared to 3.90% and 2.87% for the original and non-adsorbed CFG samples respectively. The three samples were also found to have very similar molecular mass distributions and each showed the presence of two peaks using refractive index detection. The major peak, corresponding to similar to 95% of the total, had a molecular mass of similar to 650,000 g/mol and the minor peak corresponded to a molecular mass of similar to 90,000 g/mol. The corresponding UV elution profiles indicated that the minor peak contained a significant proportion of phenolic and/or proteinaceous material. Published by Elsevier Ltd.