Polysaccharides crystallization behavior

Biliaderis, C.G., Lazaridou, A., Mavropoulos, A., and Barbayiannis, N. Water plasticization effects on crystallization behavior of lactose in a co-lyophilized amorphous polysaccharide matrix and its relevance to the glass transition, Int. 

More than half a century ago, Bawden and Pirie [77] found that aqueous solutions of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), a charged rodlike virus, formed a liquid crystal phase at as very low a concentration as 2%. To explain such remarkable liquid crystallinity was one of the central themes in the famous 1949 paper of Onsager [2], However, systematic experimental studies on the phase behavior in stiff polyelectrolyte solutions have begun only recently. At present, phase equilibrium data on aqueous solutions qualified for quantitative discussion are available for four stiff polyelectrolytes, TMV, DNA, xanthan (a double helical polysaccharide), and fd-virus. 

Soil polysaccharides have been shown to be readily adsorbed in large amounts by montmorillonite, and they can enter into the crystal lattice to form interlamellar complexes. This behavior indicates that the poly ccharides are linear, uncharged molecules of appreciable size. 

In the past [4-6] it was common to characterize amphiphiles according to their major performance in food systems (1) emulsification and stabilization, (2) protein interactions, (3) polysaccharide complexation, (4) aeration, and (5) crystal structure modification of fats. Such classifications correlate the surfactant chemical structure to its interaction (chemical or physical) with substrates such as fats, polysaccharides, and proteins. It was confirmed fhat certain surfactants interact molecularly with macromolecules, forming complexes and/or hybrids, and alter the macromolecular behavior at the interface. Such activity is an important new contribution of cosurfactants to the surface performance of other surfactants [7]. Such interactions are sometimes a very important contribution of amphiphiles to food systems. 

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