The effect of citral loading and fatty acid distribution on the oleogels: Physicochemical properties and in vitro digestion

Oleogels containing bioactive substances such as citral (CT) are used as functional food ingredients. However, little information is available on the influence of different oleogel network structure caused by CT addition and fatty acid distribution on its digestion behavior. Coconut oil, palm oil, high oleic peanut oil, safflower seed oil, and perilla seed oil were used in this study. The results showed that perilla seed oil-CT-based oleogels had the highest oil-holding capacity (99.03 ± 0.3), whereas CT addition higher than 10 wt% could lead to the morphology collapse of oleogels. Physical and thermodynamic analyses revealed that CT could reduce oleogel hardness and higher unsaturated fatty acid content is more likely to form oleogel with stable and tight crystalline network. Moreover, the dense structure of oleogels hinders the contact between oleogels and lipase, thus weakening triglyceride digestion. These findings provide valuable insights into the design of oleogels loading with CT.