Abstract/Summary

Oat is rich in a wide range of phytochemicals with various physico-chemical, colloidal and interfacial properties. These characteristics are likely to influence human lipid metabolism and the subsequent effect on health following oat consumption. The aim of this work was to investigate the impact of oat materials varying in complexity on the lipolysis process. The composition, structure and digestibility of different lipid systems (emulsions, oil bodies and oil enriched in phytosterols) were determined. The surface activities of phytosterols were examined using the pendant drop technique. Differences in lipid digestibility of the oat oil emulsions and the oil bodies were clearly seen. Also, the digestion of sunflower oil was reduced proportionally to the concentration of phytosterols present. This may be due to their interfacial properties as demonstrated by the pendant drop experiments. This work highlights the importance of considering the overall structure of the system studied and not only its composition.