Study of gelatin renaturation in aqueous solution by AFlFFF-MALS: Influence of a thermal pre-treatment applied on gelatin

Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation coupled to Multi-Angle Light Scattering has been applied to study and understand the renaturation phenomenon of gelatin in dilute aqueous solutions. Renaturation behaviour has been studied on a native gelatin powder and compared to the same gelatin, pre-heated at 75 degrees C. An increase of molar mass, due to gelatin chains association at room temperature was observed for native gelatin. AFlFFF-MALS analysis allowed to follow alpha, beta, gamma chains association and the occurrence of other fractions with high molar mass. This process was absent in pre-heated gelatin which suggested that pre-heating process could lead to interactions between gelatin chains which limited renaturation process in aqueous solutions. For pre-heated gelatin samples, the average initial molar mass was higher and hardly changed during incubation of a dilute solution. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.