Preparation of Pectin Aerogels From Flaxseed and Evaluation of Their Potential as Hemostatic Agents: Water Absorption Characteristics

ABSTRACT Flaxseed has been used extensively to extract flaxseed oil and drugs used for breast cancer treatment. Flaxseed contains a considerable amount of pectin in addition. We extracted pectin from flaxseed and prepared pectin aerogels by the steps of de‐esterification, gelation, solvent exchange and supercritical CO2 drying. It is more advantageous to extract pectin from flaxseed than from flaxcake. Pectin extracted from flaxseed is a high‐methoxyl pectin (degree of esterification 64%), which must be de‐esterified to low‐methoxyl pectin for gelation with calcium ions. Pectin aerogels have biocompatibility and biodegradability, and have high water absorption (196 g/g) due to their high specific surface area (330 m 2 /g) and porosity (91%) and can be used as hemostatic agents. The effect of pectin concentration and calcium ions on the water absorption characteristics of pectin aerogels was examined, and it was confirmed that pectin aerogel has a significantly higher water absorption capacity compared to low‐methoxyl pectin.