ABSTRACT
Applications of plant gums in food as well as in nonfood industries are always made in aqueous media. On putting in water, the molecules of hydrocolloids bind water to varying extant, and dramatic changes take place in their size, shape, and molecular conformation. Hydrocolloids in an aqueous media act as modiers of the functional behavior of liquid water. Changes in the functional behavior of water can be observed as thickening and gelling, or a behavior intermediate between these two. Though these changes can be observed manually and visually, there is a need for a quantitative evaluation of such changes. One important property of ¥uids is the ¥ow behavior, which changes due to thickening. Thickening of a sol is a measurable property in terms of the viscosity of a ¥uid.
