LAUSR

BACKGROUND The application of chia mucilage remains still restricted due to the difficulty in achieving high extraction yields. The effect of ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) conditions (temperature, seed:water ratio and time) on the rheological properties of chia mucilage extracts and the relation with the proportion of translucent phase (TP) and opaque phase (OP) of the mucilage in the extract were evaluated. RESULTS UAE allowed to extract efficiently chia mucilage from the chia seeds. The desired overall optimal combination to maximizing both yield and apparent viscosity was achieved at a seed:water ratio 1:10, a temperature of 25.3°C and 53.7 min of extraction time; while the optimal conditions to obtain the maximum yield and minimum apparent viscosity were seed:water ratio close to 1:20, temperature of 48.8°C and 208.4 min of extraction. CONCLUSION The results obtained in the present work demonstrated that the differences in rheological properties of chia mucilage extracts are due to the extraction methods used. Therefore, it is possible to modulate the extraction conditions in order to obtain different characteristics of the mucilage, maintaining a high extraction yield. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.