Further studies of
the rheological and sedimentation behaviour of solutions of ternary
mixtures containing variable alginate content prepared in the lab-
oratory confirmed a ternary interaction and this was enhanced by
heat treating the solutions particularly when the sodium alginate
content of themixture was greater than about 5%. Further Ca2+ ion
addition experiments showed the presence of both the other two
polysaccharides was required to prevent calcium alginate precipi-
tation. The overall conclusion is that, in solution, sodium alginate
is interacting with a konjac glucomannan–xanthan gum complex