Purification on Kappa Carrageenan by Re-Precipitation Technique

Abstract

Purification on kappa (ƙ) carrageenan was performed by dissolving ƙ-carrageenan powder in distilled water and re-precipitated with ethanol and n-hexane separately during re-precipitation process. The purified kappa carrageenan was analyzed by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur (CHNS) elemental analysis. The outcomes from FTIR showed there are physical changes due to intermolecular interactions which lead to decrease and lower intensity of hydroxyl band at 3345 cm-1 after re-precipitated with n-hexane, compared to re-precipitation with ethanol and unpurified ƙ-carrageenan. There were variations observed in the percentages of C, H and S in the CHNS analysis between unpurified and purified ƙ-carrageenan. The successfully purified ƙ-carrageenan are suitable to be used for further application.