Effects of pH on the ability of flavonoids to act as Pickering emulsion stabilizers

The flavonoids tiliroside, rutin and naringin have been investigated as stabilizers of Pickering oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions. The mean droplet size of tetradecane emulsions was considerably smaller at higher pH, especially for rutin. The solubility of flavonoids in the aqueous phase was 4–6 times higher at pH 8 compared to pH 2 for tiliroside and rutin, although all absolute solubilities remained low (<1 mM). This agreed with a slight increase in surface activity of tiliroside and rutin at the O–W interface at pH 8 compared to pH 2. However, improved emulsion stabilization at higher pH is better explained by the significant increase in ζ-potential of the flavonoid particles to more negative values at pH 8, which will improve particle dispersion and increase the charge on the droplets stabilized by them. A buckwheat tea extract, rich in rutin, was also shown to be an effective stabilizer of sunflower O/W emulsions.

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► The ability of different pure flavonoids to stabilize emulsions via the Pickering mechanism can vary strongly with pH.
► The varying stability with pH is largely due to varying flavonoid particle charge.
► A buckwheat tea extract, rich in rutin, was also shown to be an effective Pickering stabilizer of sunflower O/W emulsions.