Apolar oil favored interfacial curcumin complexation onto goose liver protein improves the high internal phase emulsion templated oleogel characters.

The curcumin complexation onto goose liver protein (GLP) at interface for high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) property enhancement as well as plant oil (sunflower oil, corn oil and flaxseed oil) based oleogels stabilization were elucidated. Interfacial pressure and rheology showed that oily dispersed curcumin and its complexation strengthened the GLP adsorption and intermolecular assembly, especially for apolar flaxseed oil. Frequency sweep and micromorphology of HIPEs suggested that flaxseed oil and curcumin complexation rendered the highest droplet packing density with least size dimension (40.25 ± 0.77 μm) ascribed to the most elevated GLP interfacial property. The oleogel with flaxseed oil incorporation and curcumin complexation exhibited also the largest shear resistance due to sufficient GLP interfacial networking that better entrapped the oil droplets, as was also indicated by thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction and Fourier infrared spectroscopy. Consequently, this oleogel gave the most favored oil holding (90.15 ± 1.05 %) as well as the highest oxidation stability with least oil unsaturation to saturation transformation for 10 days storage. This study provided an alternative for oleogel synthesis via facile oil inclusion with the phenol and potentiated the application of fat replacer using the by-product protein with synergistic curcumin complexation.