Preliminary study on the degradation kinetics of agarose and carrageenans by ultrasound

The changes in intrinsic viscosity ([eta]) during ultrasonic degradation of agarose, kappa- and L-carrageenans in water were investigated. Based on th e concept that the random scission of glycosidic linkage basically obeys fi rst-order kinetics, the degradation rate (k) for each short-term ultrasonic ation process could be obtained. The resultant k values for 0.5 wt% polysac charide systems appeared to decrease quite linearly with reduced [eta], in contrast to those for 1.5 wt% systems. Both k value and its [eta]-dependenc e of diluted and concentrated systems were in the order of agarose > kappa- carr > iota-carr, depending on the concentration of polysaccharides. (C) 19 99 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.