Comparison of formation of visco-elastic masses and their properties between zeins and kafirins

•Zein and kafirin visco-elastic masses can be formed by coacervation.•Visco-elastic mass formation not dependent of prolamin sub-class composition.•Zein visco-elastic masses are largely viscous, kafirin masses more elastic.•γ-Subclass needed for zein and kafirin visco-elastic mass softness retention.•γ-Subclass needed for kafrin visco-elastic mass elastic recovery retention. Zeins of differing sub-class composition much more readily formed visco-elastic masses in water or acetic acid solutions than equivalent kafirin preparations. Visco-elastic masses could be formed from both zein and kafirin preparations by coacervation from glacial acetic acid. Dissolving the prolamins in glacial acetic acid apparently enabled protonation and complete solvation. Stress-relaxation analysis of coacervated zein and kafirin visco-elastic masses showed they were initially soft. With storage, they became much firmer. Zein masses exhibited predominantly viscous flow properties, whereas kafirin masses were more elastic. The γ-sub-class is apparently necessary for the retention of visco-elastic mass softness with kafirin and zein, and for elastic recovery of kafirin. Generally, regardless of water or acetic acid treatment, all the zein preparations had similar FTIR spectra, with greater α-helical conformation, than the kafirin preparations which were also similar to each other. Kafirin visco-elastic masses have a much higher elastic character than zein masses.