Water migration depicts the effect of hydrocolloids on the structural and textural properties of lotus seed starch.

Water migration was used to depict the effect of hydrocolloids on the structural and textural properties of lotus seed starch (LS) during long-term retrogradation. The results showed that chitosan (CS) increased water migration and starch retrogradation of LS gel, causing the water molecules to easily diffuse as higher mobility free water (T24), which was strongly related to the higher short-range ordered and greater hardness of LS-CS gels. The addition of guar gum (GG) and xanthan (XN) interfered with water exudation, and thus increased the tightly bound water fraction (A21) of LS-GG blends and decreased the higher mobility free water fraction (A24) of LS-XN blends. This retarded the formation of ordered structures of LS gels, consequently, softening LS gel. GG performed better than XN in the above-mentioned effects due to their different molecular characteristics. Water migration can thus effectively depict the effect of hydrocolloids on the properties of LS.