Rheological characterization of levan polysaccharides from Microbacterium laevaniformans

Levan polysaccharides were produced from Microbacterium laevaniformans and its rheological behaviors were characterized as a function of concentration and temperature. The intrinsic viscosity of the purified levan was determined to be 0.38 dL/g at 25 °C which was relatively higher than that of levans from other microbial sources. The flow behaviors of the levan solutions were characterized by the increase in the shear stress, giving more increments in the shear rate. Thus, the levan solutions exhibited the pseudoplastic behavior, which was characterized by the power law model. In addition, the flow behaviors of the levans were satisfactorily fitted to the Arrhenius equation where the activation energy of flow (Ea) decreased from 24.07 to 13.53 kJ/mol (R2 = 0.98–0.99) with increasing concentrations. Moreover, the exponential equation was favorably applied to describe the effect of concentration on the apparent viscosity of the levan polysaccharides.