Interactions of Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharides with different polysaccharides to fabricate food hydrogels: A review

Nowadays, food hydrogels are widely applied in food processing and can be utilized to deliver various functional components. Mesona chinensis Benth polysaccharides (MCBP), the major compounds of Mesona chinensis Benth, have been successfully developed as stabilizers, coagulants and binders in the food industry. However, due to the insufficient viscosity of single MCBP solution, MCBP need to interact with other biomacromolecules to form hydrogels. In recent years, a series of novel composite hydrogels were prepared by various research teams based on the interactions of MCBP with different polysaccharides. Therefore, we aimed to summarize the research progress in the physicochemical properties of MCBP-polysaccharide hydrogels for the first time. It was shown that MCBP were able to form gels with wheat, maize, pea, sweet potato, tapioca, rice, potato, chestnut, hyacinth bean starches and chitosan. The addition of these polysaccharides could significantly influence the pasting, gelling, textural, rheological, morphological, thermal, retrogradation, color, optical and in vitro digestible properties of MCBP. Notably, the decrease in the digestibility of starches from different sources after interacting with MCBP was usually associated with the effects of MCBP on their structural properties. Besides, the physicochemical properties of composite hydrogels were greatly affected by heat, urea, alkali and salt ion treatments, which was probably attributed to their impacts on the electrostatic interactions and/or hydrogen bonds between two polysaccharides. Taken together, MCBP were of great potential to be utilized in the fabrication of novel functional hydrogels in the future.