Formation in food polymer/colloid systems

食品聚合物/胶体系统中的形成

• 批准号: 36862-2011
• 负责人: Paulson, Allan
• 金额: $ 2.26万
• 依托单位: Dalhousie University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=544778
• 关键词: Formation; food; polymer; colloid; systems

This research focuses on Food Materials Science, the functional behaviour of food components as related to their chemical, biochemical, physical and microstructural properties. The long-term goal is to increase our knowledge of the functional behavior of food polymers for the purpose of improving utilization and quality of our food resources. The short-term goals are to study (1) functional improvement of cationic antimicrobial peptides and (2) structure formation in polymer sols and gels. For the first objective, the antimicrobial peptide "protamine" is naturally occurring and active against a wide range of bacteria, but due to its high positive charge it binds non-specifically to many food proteins and is not suitable as a food ingredient. We are studying the chemical modification of protamine to improve its efficacy for food use. For the second objective, we intend to gain an understanding of structure formation in gelling polysaccharides by examining the properties of molecules, aggregates and gels while controlling factors such as temperature, pH and ionic environment that will give information on their functional behaviour and mechanisms of interaction. We are investigating their fractal nature, and applying Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (MMCS) to gain more insight. Many gels are fractal and their underlying order can be described by the fractal dimension, D. D is characteristic of processes by which structure is built, so it will help us understand the mechanisms by which the gels are formed and allow us to control their characteristics. With MMCS, we create a mathematical model of a particular system that we want to study, such as polysaccharides in a solution containing ions. We write a computer code to represent this system and then carry out a numerical simulation of the system's dynamics and resulting structures. This enables us to carry out studies and measurements that might not be achievable in the lab, and can give insight into possible mechanisms by which structures are formed and/or to make predictions that will help guide laboratory experiments.

这项研究的重点是食品材料科学，即食品成分与其化学、生化、物理和微观结构特性相关的功能行为。 长期目标是增加我们对食品聚合物功能行为的了解，以提高食品资源的利用率和质量。短期目标是研究（1）阳离子抗菌肽的功能改进和（2）聚合物溶胶和凝胶中的结构形成。对于第一个目标，抗菌肽“鱼精蛋白”是天然存在的，对多种细菌具有活性，但由于其高正电荷，它与许多食品蛋白质非特异性结合，不适合作为食品成分。我们正在研究鱼精蛋白的化学修饰，以提高其食品用途的功效。对于第二个目标，我们打算通过检查分子、聚集体和凝胶的特性，同时控制温度、pH 和离子环境等因素来了解胶凝多糖的结构形成，这些因素将提供有关其功能行为和相互作用机制的信息。我们正在研究它们的分形性质，并应用数学建模和计算机模拟 (MMCS) 来获得更多见解。许多凝胶是分形的，它们的基本顺序可以通过分形维数 D 来描述。D 是结构构建过程的特征，因此它将帮助我们了解凝胶形成的机制并允许我们控制它们的特性。通过 MMCS，我们创建了我们想要研究的特定系统的数学模型，例如含有离子的溶液中的多糖。我们编写计算机代码来表示该系统，然后对该系统的动力学和所得结构进行数值模拟。这使我们能够进行在实验室中可能无法实现的研究和测量，并且可以深入了解结构形成的可能机制和/或做出有助于指导实验室实验的预测。