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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Dairy and Functional Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #368835

Research Project: In Vitro Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem: Effects of Diet

Location: Dairy and Functional Foods Research

Title: Incorporation of tannic acid in food-grade guar gum fibrous mats by electrospinning technique

Author
item YANG, WEIQIAO - Tianjin University Of Science And Technology
item ZHANG, MIN - Tianjin University Of Science And Technology
item LI, XIHONG - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item JIANG, JIANAN - Nankai University
item SOUSA, ANA M. M. - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item ZHAO, QIANG - Nankai University
item PONTIOUS, SHERRI - Temple University
item Liu, Linshu

Submitted to: Polymers
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/10/2019
Publication Date: 1/15/2019
Citation: Yang, W., Zhang, M., Li, X., Jiang, J., Sousa, A., Zhao, Q., Pontious, S., Liu, L.S. 2019. Incorporation of tannic acid in food-grade guar gum fibrous mats by electrospinning technique. Polymers. 11:141. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11010141.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11010141

Interpretive Summary: Food oxidization lowers food quality, causes food spoilage, and wasted food. We present here a new formulation of anti-food-oxidants. It was made by co-electrospinning of a food-grade, naturally occurring materials, guar gum and an antioxidant of tannic acid. The fibrous mats thus produced possesses a huge surface area per unit weight, thus maximizing the antioxidant activity of tannic acid. The tannic acid loaded fibrous mats can be used as food additive for food formulation, or for food preservation.

Technical Abstract: The use of polysaccharides to produce functional micro- or nanoscale fibrous mats has attracted growing interest for their food-grade applications. In this study, the characterization and electrospinnability of guar gum (GG) solutions loaded with tannic acid (TA) was demonstrated. Food-grade antioxidant materials were successfully produced by electrospinning while incorporating different loads of TA into GG fibers. Bead-free GG-TA fibers could be fabricated from GG solution (2 wt %) with 10 wt % TA. Increasing the amount of TA led to fibers with defects and larger diameter sizes. Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy and X-ray Diffraction of neat GG and TA loaded GG fibrous mats suggested that inclusion of TA interrupted the hydrogen bonding and that a higher density of the ordered junction zones formed with the increased TA. The high TA incorporation efficiency and retained antioxidant activity of the fibrous mats afford potential applications in active edible films or drug delivery systems.