Phenolic compounds mediate aggregation of water-soluble polysaccharides and change their rheological properties: Effect of different phenolic compounds

Abstract Phenolic compounds are known to bind non-covalently with water-soluble polysaccharides, but the impact of this interaction on the polysaccharides has received little attention. In this study, we examined the impact of polysaccharide-phenolic complexation on the physico-chemical properties of oat β-glucans, guar galactomannan and xanthan mannoglucuronoglucan. These polysaccharides were complexed with model phenolic compounds. Particle size distribution, water mobility and rheological properties (flow behavior and flow consistency indices) were measured on the resulting solutions. We observed colloidal aggregation mediated by phenolic compounds leading to significant changes of the polysaccharides’ rheological properties, in particular a decrease of the pseudo-plastic behavior of the polysaccharides solutions.