Gelatin is an important basic raw material for the food and pharmaceutical industries. For example, in the food industry, gelatin is used as a gelling agent in confectionery, and in the pharmaceutical industry for the manufacture of capsules containing active ingredients. In this article, we show how gelatin and gelatin gels can be characterized by TGA/DSC-MS, DSC and TMA.
Introduction
Gelatin is widely used in the food industry, for example as a gelling agent in confectionery (jelly bears), for jellied meat products (aspic jellies) or for bakery products (glazing), and in the pharmaceutical industry to make hard and soft capsules for drug products and as a thickening agent for liquid pharmaceuticals.
Gelatin consists of partially hydrolyzed collagen, which is mainly extracted from the bones, skins and tissues of cattle, pigs and poultry. It is therefore not a pure chemical product but consists of amino acids that are linked together with peptide bonds to long chain proteins with molecular weights between 15,000 and 400,000 g/mol. Gelatin swells when immersed in cold water. If the swollen gelatin is heated, a colloidal solution (a sol) is formed. This destroys the original structure of the gelatin-protein (denaturation). On cooling, the solution forms a three-dimensional network in which the original structure of the gelatin-protein is restored (renaturation) and the water remains integrated in the network. This results in a rubbery-like gel. This process is reversible, which is why the gelatin gels are also known as thermoreversible gels.
In this article, we show how gelatins and gelatin gels can be investigated using different thermal analysis methods (TGA/DSC-MS, DSC, TMA).
Experimental Details
The sample investigated was a gelatin powder obtained from a local supermarket. The gelatin was first characterized by TGA /DSC coupled to a mass spectro-meter and by DSC (details follow later).
Characterization of Gelatin and Gelatin Gels by TGA/DSC-MS, DSC and TMA | Thermal Analysis Application No. UC 542 | Application published in METTLER TOLEDO Thermal Analysis UserCom 54
