Comparative structural and vibrational investigations between cocoa butter (CB) and cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) by ESI/MALDI-HRMS, XRD, DSC, MIR and Raman spectroscopy.

A high quality chocolate requires not only a shiny surface, a crunchy and pleasant texture, but also a proper resistance to blooming. All these characteristics are influenced by the physical and chemical properties of the components, which are directly related to their crystalline structure. Some works found that the proportion of cocoa butter (CB), cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) and milk fatty acid (AMF) tend to strongly delay the blooming when mixing them. The goal of our research is to determine how the choice of adding CBE to the mixture delays chocolate blooming. ESI/MALDI-HRMS, X-ray, DSC, MIR and Raman investigations were used to analyze the structure features and the vibrational modes of CB and CBE. The comparison of these experimental results between CB and CBE made it possible to highlight markers of differentiation between CB and CBE which seems to explain the impact of CBE in the chocolate blooming. Part of these triglycerides remains in form IV instead. The presence of the latter seems to be a key parameter that favors the transformation deceleration to the form VI, which is responsible for the fat bloom development.

Lyotropic behavior of Gelucire 50/13 by XRD, Raman and IR spectroscopies according to hydration.

The present paper discuss the structural and vibrational properties of polyoxyethylene glycol glycerides (Gelucire 50/13) during the hydration with increasing water from 0% to 80%. The Gelucire 50/13 used as sustained release matrix forming agent in pharmaceutical applications and it was essentially studied by Small and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (SWAXS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy according to the rate of hydration. The hydration behavior of this amphiphilic excipient has been investigated in the spectral range 4000-0cm-1 in Raman spectroscopy, and 4000-600cm-1 in FTIR. At increasing water contents Gelucire 50/13 forms successive bicontinuous to micellar supramolecular structures, and the vibrational changes were directly correlated with this conformational changes of the Gelucire structure. Overall, Raman and IR spectroscopy clearly demonstrated that the different functional groups studied could be characterized independently, allowing for the understanding of their role in Gelucire polymorphism.