ORIGINAL PAPER Thermal and Textural Properties of Organogels Developed by Candelilla Wax in Safflower Oil

Abstract We investigated organogel formation in dis-persions of CW in safflower oil (SFO). Candelilla wax (CW) has as its main component hentriacontane (78.9%), a n-alkane with self assembly properties in organic solvents (i.e., vegetable oils). Results showed that, independent of the cooling rate (i.e., 1 C/min and 10 C/min) and gel setting temperature (Tset), the CW organogels observed a thermoreversible behavior. This was evaluated by the behavior of thermal parameters that characterized organo-gel formation (gelation temperature, Tg; heat of gelation, DHg) and melting (melting temperature, Tp; heat of melt-ing, DHM) after two heating-cooling cycles. For a given CW concentration (i.e., 0.5, 1.0, and 3%), the magnitude of DHM and Tp and the structural organization of the organ-ogel, depended on the cooling rate, the thermodynamic drive force for gelation, and the annealing process occur-ring at high Tset (i.e., 25 C). At Tset of 25 C the microplatelet units that formed the organogel aggregated as a function of storage time, a process that resulted in an increase in organogel hardness. In contrast, at Tset of 5 C annealing occurred in a limited extent, but gels had higher solid fat content and microplatelet units of a smaller size than the gels obtained at 25 C. The result was a three-dimensional network with greater hardness than the one obtained at 25 C. The 3 % CW organogels showed no phase separation up to 3 months at room temperature, with textures of potential use by the food industry