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Analysis of Oat beta-glucan/Milk Mixtures by Diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) (CAT#: STEM-MB-0855-WXH)

Introduction

Beta-glucans, β-glucans comprise a group of β-D-glucose polysaccharides (glucans) naturally occurring in the cell walls of cereals, bacteria, and fungi, with significantly differing physicochemical properties dependent on source. At dietary intake levels of at least 3 g per day, oat fiber β-glucan decreases blood levels of LDL cholesterol and so may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. β-glucans are natural gums and are used as texturing agents in various nutraceutical and cosmetic products, and as soluble fiber supplements.
When high molecular weight beta-glucan is added to milk, macroscopic phase separation occurs due to thermodynamic incompatibility between mixed-linkage beta-glucan and milk proteins.




Principle

Diffusing-wave spectroscopy (DWS) is an optical technique derived from dynamic light scattering (DLS) that studies the dynamics of scattered light in the limit of strong multiple scattering. DWS is able to give information about the local dynamics of particle dispersion in a highly turbid medium. It has been widely used in the past to study colloidal suspensions, emulsions, foams, gels, biological media, and other forms of soft matter. If carefully calibrated, DWS allows the quantitative measurement of microscopic motion in a soft material, from which the rheological properties of the complex medium can be extracted via the microrheology approach.
The technique of DWS depends on the scattering of light from highly turbid suspensions. A sample of the suspension is illuminated by light from a laser and the incoming photons are multiply scattered. This scattered light is detected and subjected to autocorrelation analysis.

Applications

• Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy (DWS) is an advanced light scattering technique, which is primarily applied for microrheology and particle sizing.
• DWS has been applied in biomedical and clinical areas, especially in monitoring cerebral blood flow (CBF).

Procedure

1. Sample Preparation
2. Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy Testing
3. Data analysis

Materials

• Diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) instrument
• DWS RheoLab
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