Abstract: Oleogels were formed by adding cinnamic acid to canola oil, corn oil and flaxseed oil, followed by heating, stirring and cooling. Our aim was to analyze the effect of oil type on the critical concentration, oil binding capacity (OBC), hardness, solid fat content (SFC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern as well as microstructure of oleogels. The results showed that oil type had no significant effect on the critical concentration of oleogels (4%, regardless of oil type) but influenced OBC; for each of the oils, OBC increased with increasing concentration of cinnamic acid. The different oils had a significant effect on the hardness of oleogels and among them, canola oil and flaxseed oil oleogels had the lowest and highest hardness, respectively. The SFC of three oleogels was in the increasing order of canola oil < corn oil < flaxseed oil. At the same time, crystallographic analysis showed that the major crystalline forms of all three oleogels were β and β’. Significant differences in the microstructure and crystal distribution of these oleogels were characterized by polarized light microscope, indicating that oil type had a significant effect on the microstructure of oleogels.

Key words: oil type, cinnamic acid, oleogels, oleogel properties