Unraveling the relationship between conditions of ultrasonic-assisted extraction of chia mucilage and viscosity

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The application of chia mucilage still remains restricted due to the difficulty in achieving high extraction yields. The effect of ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) conditions (temperature, seed:water ratio and time) on the rheological properties of chia mucilage extracts and the relation to the proportion of translucent phase (TP) and opaque phase (OP) of the mucilage in the extract were evaluated. RESULTS: UAE allowed the efficient extraction of chia mucilage from chia seeds. The desired overall optimal combination to maximize both yield and apparent viscosity was achieved at a seed:water ratio 1:10, a temperature of 25.3 °C and 53.7 min extraction time; the optimal conditions to obtain the maximum yield and minimum apparent viscosity were a seed:water ratio close to 1:20, temperature of 48.8 °C and 208.4 min extraction time. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in the present work demonstrated that the differences in rheological properties of chia mucilage extracts are due to the extraction methods used. Therefore, it is possible to modulate the extraction conditions in order to obtain different characteristics of the mucilage, maintaining a high extraction yield.