In this study, the capability of a natural surfactant, lecithin, and the influence of ionic strength, pH, and temperature on some properties of a food grade microemulsion system were evaluated. For this purpose, the pseudoternary phase diagrams of canola oil/lecithin:n-propanol/water microemulsions in the presence of different salts (NaCl and CaCl2), ionic strengths, pHs, and temperatures were constructed. Our findings showed that the presence of salts slightly increased the W/O areas on the phase diagrams, whereas pH variation was not effective on the microemulsion formation. The expansion of microemulsion areas with temperature indicated the greater triglycerides solubilization capacity of lecithin based microemulsions at higher temperatures. These findings revealed the efficiency of lecithin-based microemulsion system for solubilization of triglycerides which can potentially be used for extraction of edible vegetable oils particularly canola oil.

The effect of esterification on hydrolyzed rice starch was analyzed, for this aim rice starch was hydrolyzed and subsequently esterified with lauroyl chloride at three modification levels. Starch derivatives were characterized regarding their degree of substitution (DS), water solubility index, z-potential, gelatinization, and digestibility properties. DS of derivatives of rice starch laurate ranged from 0.042 to 1.86. It was determined that after esterification the water solubility index increased from 3.44 to 53.61%, the z-potential decreased from −3.18 to −11.27, and the content of slowly digestible starch (SDS) decreased from 26.22 to 5.13%. Different emulsions with starch concentrations ranging from 6 to 30 wt% were evaluated. The most stable emulsions were those having 20 and 30 wt% of rice starch laurate.