Texture exponent 6

Images of dry gel beads (n = 40) were obtained using an optical microscope (Altami, Russia) equipped with a camera. The projected equivalent diameter of the beads was determined using an image analysis system (ImageJ 1.46r program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) with calibration of 0.024 mm to one pixel.
A compression test of the gel beads was performed using TA-XT Plus Texture Analyzer (Texture Technologies Corp., Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK). The wet gel beads were compressed at 25 °C with a 12 mm diameter (P/0.5R) cylinder probe with the pre- and post-test speed was 10.0 mm/s and the test speed of 0.5 mm/s until deformation of 50%. The detailed procedure was described earlier [64 (link)]. The calculations of maximum peaks were performed for ten replicate samples using Texture Exponent 6.1.4.0 software (Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK).
The water content was calculated using the following Equation (1):
where W_W and W_D represent the weight of the gel beads (n = 20–30) before and after drying at 25 °C until constant weight.

The strength, work, adhesiveness, and elasticity of the hydrogels were measured on a Texture Analyzer (TA-XT Plus, Texture Technologies Corp., Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK). To assess the textural characteristics of wet hydrogels, the hydrogel particles were punctured using a P/2 probe. The probe movement speed was 1.0 mm/s. Each test was carried out for 15 particles. The gel strength, work, and elasticity of GSE-loaded hydrogels were determined using a Texture Exponent 6.1.4.0 software (Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK).

Images of wet and dried gel beads (n = 40) were obtained using an optical microscope (Altami, Russia) equipped with a camera. The projected equivalent diameter of the beads was determined using an image analysis system (ImageJ 1.46r program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) with a calibration of 0.024 mm to one pixel.
A compression test of the gel beads was performed using TA-XT Plus Texture Analyzer (Texture Technologies Corp., Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK). The wet gel beads were compressed at 25 °C with a 5 mm diameter (P/5) cylinder probe, where the pre- and post-test speed was 5.0 mm/s, and the test speed was 0.5 mm/s for the wet beads and 0.1 mm/s for the dry beads. Gel strength for wet beads was calculated at a distance of 0.5 mm for the dry beads until the destruction of the bead. The detailed procedure was described earlier [19 (link)]. The calculations of maximum peaks were performed for ten replicate samples using the Texture Exponent 6.1.4.0 software (Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK).
The water content was calculated using the following Equation (1):
where W_W and W_D represent the weight of the gel beads (n = 20–30) before and after drying at 25 °C until constant weight.

Images of dry gel beads (n = 40) were obtained using an optical microscope (Altami, Russia) equipped with a camera. The projected equivalent diameter of the beads was determined using an image analysis system (ImageJ 1.46r program, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA) with a calibration of 0.024 mm to one pixel.
A compression test of the gel beads was performed using TA-XT Plus Texture Analyser (Texture Technologies Corp., Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK). The wet gel beads were compressed at 25 °C with a 12 mm diameter (P/0.5R) cylinder probe with the test speed of 0.1 mm/s until deformation of 50%. The calculations of maximum peaks were performed for ten replicate samples using Texture Exponent 6.1.4.0 software (StableMicro Systems, Godalming, UK).