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Physical Properties of Inulin and Technological Applications

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Polysaccharides

Abstract

This chapter deals about a carbohydrate polymer highly used as an ingredient in food products and commonly consumed by humans, but very often unnoticed: inulin. The chapter provides an overall view about the inulin, its benefits in human’s health, introducing the physical properties, providing a deeper understanding about the relation between its structure and properties, and discussing some technological applications. The chapter is divided into three parts. Section 1 provides an overall view about the inulin and its benefits in human’s health and overview some applications. Section 2 introduces the physical properties of inulin, providing a deeper understanding about the relation between its structure and properties. The importance of the amorphous state in inulin is explained, some undesired characteristics presented during the processing of inulin are revealed, state diagrams are introduced, including a complex state diagram for inulin, and the effect of the polymerization degree on the properties is disused as well. Section 3 presents the technological application of inulin, that is, the performance of inulin in food products; a complex state diagram is presented and discussed for the system inulin-orange juice. In general, the chapter is based on the reviewed literature, which is a very recent research topic, and the presentation of some new experimental results. The aim of the work is to present the inulin in such a way that the reader interested in this topic may recognize this material as a very important ingredient in the formulation of food products. Likewise, the reader who is beginning to learn about this material may realize about the importance of the structure of inulin on the final properties of the food product. Ultimately, the expectation of the authors is that the reader after finishing the chapter be motivated to take a food product from his/her refrigerator and look for the presence of inulin in the nutritional information of the product.

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Abbreviations

aw :

Water activity

Da:

Dalton

DP:

Degree of polymerization

DSC:

Differential scanning calorimetry

FOS:

Fructooligosaccharides

LCI:

Long chain inulin

MDSC:

Modulated differential scanning calorimetry

Mn :

Number average molar mass

Mw :

Mass average molar mass

MWD:

Molecular weight distribution

NI:

Native inulin

OM:

Optical microscopy

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

Tg:

Glass transition temperature

XRD:

X-ray diffraction

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Acknowledgment

The technical support provided by Alberto Toxqui-Terán and Miguel Esneider-Alcalá, in the MDSC and OM experiments performed during the development of the state diagrams, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación de Materiales Avanzados (CIMAV-Unidad Monterrey), Alianza Norte No. 202, Autopista Monterrey-Aeropuerto Km 10, Parque de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (PIIT), Apodaca, Mexico

    César Leyva-Porras

  2. Coordinación Académica Región Altiplano, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Carretera Cedral Km. 5+600, Ejido San José de las Trojes, Matehuala, C.P. 78700, Mexico

    Ana L. López-Pablos & Zenaida Saavedra-Leos

  3. Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Av. Dr. Manuel Nava No. 8, Zona Universitaria, San Luis Potosí, SLP, C.P. 78210, Mexico

    Claudia Alvarez-Salas

  4. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Av. Dr. Manuel Nava No. 8, Zona Universitaria, San Luis Potosí, C.P. 78210, Mexico

    José Pérez-Urizar

Authors
  1. César Leyva-Porras
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  2. Ana L. López-Pablos
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  3. Claudia Alvarez-Salas
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  4. José Pérez-Urizar
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  5. Zenaida Saavedra-Leos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zenaida Saavedra-Leos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Botany Department, M.L.Sukhadia University, Udaipur, India

    Kishan Gopal Ramawat

  2. Groupe d’Etude des Substances Végétales à Activité Biologique, Université de Bordeaux, Institut des Sciences de la Vigne et du Vin, Villenave d'Ornon, France

    Jean-Michel Mérillon

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Leyva-Porras, C., López-Pablos, A.L., Alvarez-Salas, C., Pérez-Urizar, J., Saavedra-Leos, Z. (2015). Physical Properties of Inulin and Technological Applications. In: Ramawat, K., Mérillon, JM. (eds) Polysaccharides. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16298-0_80

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