Monitoring air/liquid partition of mastic gum oil volatiles in model alcoholic beverage emulsions: Effect of emulsion composition and oil droplet size

The purpose of this work was to study the impact of the structure and composition of hydroalcoholic emulsions on the air–liquid partition of aroma compounds of the essential oil of Pistacia lentiscus var. chia, commonly known as mastic gum oil (mainly consists of terpenes). Oil-in-water emulsions (φ = 0.17), containing 15% (v/v) ethanol, stabilized by three different emulsifiers (sodium caseinate, whey protein isolate and Tween 40), were prepared by using two different lipid phases (sunflower oil and anhydrous butter fat). The homogenization conditions were varied to obtain emulsions with different volume–surface mean diameters. The partition of the volatile compounds between air phase and emulsions at three different temperatures (25, 37 and 50 °C) was monitored by applying the Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction technique, followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. In general, the results obtained showed that sodium caseinate was the most effective in retaining mastic aroma compounds, while WPI was the least effective. This could partly be explained by the different structure of the two proteins which, when adsorbed at the interface, form a membrane that acts as a barrier and influences the partition of the aroma compounds between the air and the liquid. At the same time interactions of aroma compounds with the two proteins in the bulk phase may also play a role. The retention of the aroma compounds depended on the oil droplet size only in the case of sodium caseinate containing emulsions at 37 and 50 °C. This behaviour could be due to the substantial increase in the thickness of the adsorbed casein layer when moving from a fine sized emulsion to one with a much larger size as well as to differences in the ratio of free to adsorbed emulsifier. The composition of the lipid phase also appeared to have a significant impact on the concentration of volatile compounds in the headspace of mastic gum oil containing emulsions stabilized by proteins. This was lower in the case of butter fat probably due to differences in composition with regard to fatty acid degree of saturation as well as to volatile absorption by the liquid lipid at 40 °C and subsequent entrapment in the semisolid fat at 25 °C.