Electrospinning of zein from its solution with a non-toxic solvent is not easy. It certainly requires understanding the effects of critical parameters during electrospinning. In this paper, the first aim was to understand how the morphology and diameters of fibers produced from zein solutions were affected by solvent type used in solution and process parameters (flow-rate, voltage, and distance) by using Taguchi's orthogonal design. For this purpose, the optimum levels of factors were determined as follows: 12 kV of voltage, 15 µL/min of flow rate, 10 cm of distance, and acetic acid as solvent in order to obtain the thinnest, bead-free nanofiber. Secondly, this combination was further validated by conducting a confirmatory experiment using five different zein concentrations to study the effect of concentration. The mean diameters of fibers with 24 % zein concentrations were found as similar to the optimum conditions estimated, proving the applicability of Taguchi's method for electrospinning optimization.
Several active components naturally available in plants are strongly considered as good antioxidants to retard the lipid oxidation. Response surface methodology was used to investigate the effects of frying temperature (150-180°C) and concentration of four plant-based active components (60-350 mg/kg oil); curcumin, cinnamaldehyde, thymol and carvacrol on oxidative stability of corn and palm oils. According to induction time values, the stability of oils drastically decreased with increasing temperature. Curcumin and cinnamaldehyde showed no significant effect (p>0.05) on both oils. Carvacrol significantly increased induction times of corn and palm oils, but thymol was effective in palm oil only (p<0.05). An actual frying experiment was carried out with only corn oil to confirm efficiency of carvacrol. The free fatty acid (%), peroxide value (meq/kg), para-anisidine, and total polar component values (%) of the fresh oil were 0.080, 2.55, 2.85, and 7.5, respectively. These values changed to 0.144, 1.47, 12.01, 10.0, respectively for the control oil; 0.138, 2.27, 11.49, 10.0 for BHT-added oil; 0.132, 1.42, 5.66, 9.5 for carvacrol-added oil after 30 frying cycles. Therefore, carvacrol could be considered as a good alternative to BHT for preservation of oils at frying temperatures.
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