Properties and Applications
Lecithin has emulsification and lubricant properties, and is a surfactant. It can be totally metabolized (see Inositol) by humans, so is well tolerated by humans and nontoxic when ingested; some emulsifiers can only be excreted via the kidneys.
Lecithin is used for applications in human food, animal feed, pharmaceutical, paint, and other industrial applications.
Applications include:
- In the pharmaceutical industry, it acts as a wetting, stabilizing agent and a choline enrichment carrier, helps in emulsifications and encapsulation, and is a good dispersing agent. It can be used in manufacture of intravenous fat infusions and for therapeutic use.
- In animal feed, it enriches fat and protein and improves pelletization.
- In the paint industry, it forms protective coatings for surfaces with painting and printing ink, has antioxidant properties, helps as a rust inhibitor, is a colour-intensifying agent, catalyst, conditioning aid modifier, and dispersing aid; it is a good stabilizing and suspending agent, emulsifier, and wetting agent, helps in maintaining uniform mixture of several pigments, helps in grinding of metal oxide pigments, is a spreading and mixing aid, prevents hard settling of pigments, eliminates foam in water-based paints, and helps in fast dispersion of latex-based paints.
- Lecithin can also be used as a release agent for plastics, an antisludge additive in motor lubricants, an antigumming agent in gasoline, and an emulsifier, spreading agent, and antioxidant in textile, rubber and other industries.
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