Evaluation of Oleogels Stabilized by Particles of Birch Outer Bark Extract through a Novel Approach

Abstract

Structuring liquid oils into oleogels using natural and abundant biomass components as gelling agents is of great significance in fields such as foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. In this work, a more energy-efficient and technologically simpler approach for directly preparing birch outer bark extract particles containing oleogel was used. This method involves introducing birch outer bark extract particles into the oil phase directly from the extract solution, combining both the evaporation of solution and gel formation. As a result, stable oleogels of various vegetable oils (sunflower, almond, olive, and hemp seed) were obtained with birch outer bark extract particle contents of 4–10%. Infrared spectroscopy and particle size analysis confirmed that when increasing the content of extract particles in the oil, increasing self-assembly of extract particles via hydrogen bonding occurs, leading to the formation of a more structured network. This is consistent with gel strength values from rheological tests of oleogels, which also increased with particle concentration. The obtained oleogels showed important properties such as good tolerance to time-dependent deformation, shear thinning, and thermoreversibility.

Development and Characterization of New Plant-Based Ice Cream Assortments Using Oleogels as Fat Source

“…Due to the lower fat content of plant milk, the addition of fat (in the form of oleogels, with more than 90% liquid vegetable oil [ 34 ]) must be considered when formulating plant-based ice cream [ 35 ]. Various vegetable oils (such as olive and hemp seed oils) can be used to develop oleogels [ 36 ]. Hemp ( Cannabis sativa L.) seeds contain 30–35% oil (unsaturated fatty acids: 50–60% linoleic acid and 20–30% linolenic acid) [ 37 ], while 20% by weight of olives ( Olea europaea L.) is oil content [ 38 ] (85% unsaturated acids: 70–83% oleic acid and linoleic or palmitoleic acid) [ 39 ].…”