| Abstract: | Polypeptides play a key role in improving food quality, and understanding their interactions with polysaccharides would be beneficial to developing new foods. Herein, κ-carrageenan (KC) and ε-polylysine hydrochloride (PLH) were chosen as the model polysaccharide and polypeptide, respectively, to study polysaccharide/polypeptide complexes. The KC/PLH solutions were characterized for turbidity as a function of mass ratio, pH, salts and stirred conditions at 0.5 and 1 mg mL–1 concentrations. The solutions at a KC/PLH mass ratio of 7:3 have the highest turbidity, and the turbidity is stable in acidic conditions, decreases with increase in pH in alkaline conditions and salt concentration, and increases with increase of stirred time and temperature. The Fourier transform infrared spectra suggest that the amide I band of PLH disappears along with a change in the amide II band upon complexing with KC. These changes further influence the microstructure and reveal a rough, non-uniform and large irregular cavity network structure. Indeed, these observations are intimately associated with the dynamic interactions persistent at the molecular level between the KC and PLH. © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry. |
