Steady and dynamic shear rheology of fucoidan-buckwheat starch mixtures.

Rheological properties of fucoidan (F) and buckwheat starch (B) mixtures (3% or 6%) at different blending ratios of fucoidans (0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0%) were investigated in steady and dynamic shear. Steady shear viscosity measurement revealed that aqueous pastes of the BF blends (3%, w/v) had a pseudoplastic and shear-thinning behavior with flow behavior index (n) values of 0.61-0.68. The substitution of starch with fucoidan polymers significantly lowered the apparent viscosities compared with the pure starch paste and, when mixed with less than 0.5% of fucoidan, the viscosities of the pastes were even lower than those of the starch pastes at the corresponding starch concentrations. According to dynamic viscoelastic measurement performed at 6% total carbohydrate concentration, buckwheat starch mixtures behaved like weak gels and the BF blends containing less than 0.5% fucoidan had considerably lower storage (G') and loss (G') moduli than the starch paste at the corresponding starch concentrations. However, the magnitude of G' increased with fucoidan concentrations over 0.5%, suggesting that a concentration of fucoidans > 0.5% might enhance the formations of three-dimensional networks and crosslinking of the starch samples, probably because of the mutual exclusion between starch and fucoidan polymers through the phase separation process. This study indicates that it is possible to obtain the BF blends having various rheological properties by changing the concentration of fucoidan polymers.