Effects of Acidity, Temperature and Emulsifier Concentration on the Distribution of Caffeic Acid in Stripped Corn and Olive Oil-in-Water Emulsions

We evaluated the effects of oil type, oil to water ratio, emulsifier concentration, acidity, and temperature on the distribution of caffeic acid, CA, in emulsions composed of stripped olive and corn oils, acidic water, and Tween 20. CA mainly distributes between the water and interfacial regions because it is sparingly soluble in oils, as demonstrated by auxiliary partitioning experiments in the absence of an emulsifier. The distributions of CA were determined in the intact emulsions from values of the partition constant between the water-interfacial region, P (W) (I) , determined under different experimental conditions. At any given pH, CA is mostly located in the interfacial region of the emulsion, %CA(I) > 50 % at the lowest emulsifier volume fraction, I broken vertical bar(I) = 0.005, and its percentage increasing upon increasing I broken vertical bar(I) with %CA(I) > 90 % at I broken vertical bar(I) = 0.04. At any given I broken vertical bar(I), %CA(I) decreases substantially with increasing pH because of the ionization of the CA. Our results indicate that the main parameters affecting the distribution of CA are I broken vertical bar(I) and the acidity, while the nature of the oil, the oil to water ratio and temperature have only minor effects. Results should aid the understanding of how environmental conditions affect the distribution of phenolic acids in emulsions.