Gelling agent polysaccharides

Figure 7. Structures of several polysaccharide gelling agents. (Reproduced with permission from ref. 121. Copyright 1980 Society of Petroleum Engineers.) Continued on next page.

Table 1. Relative Viscosities of Natural Polysaccharide Gelling Agents...

Table 4 Miscellaneous polysaccharide gelling agents and their uses...

Water, occasionally modified by ethanol and salt, is the universal food solvent. Vj and vm are maximum in pure water and minimum in pure ethanol. Without hydration, polysaccharides cannot perform as plasticizers, thickeners, texturizers, stabilizers, crystallization inhibitors, and bulking and gelling agents. Crosslinking holds vm constant, irrespective of the solvent. All water relationships with solute theoretically disappear at 0. 

Rees, D. A. (1972b). Mechanism of gelation in polysaccharide systems. In Gelation and Gelling Agents, Symposium Proceedings, 13, pp. 7-12. British Food Manufacturing Industry Research Association, London. 

Agar agar Thermoreversible gelling agent Polysaccharide Red seaweeds... 

Alginate Irreversible gelling agent Polysaccharide Brown seaweeds... 

Gellan gum Thermoreversible or irreversible gelling agent Polysaccharide Pseudomonas elodea... 

These experiments confirmed that both the surface functions of the polysaccharide framework and the cations used as gelling agents are accessible to polar molecules in the liquid phase. Moreover, the immersion in organic low surface-tension solvents does not affect the texture of the aerogels. 

---