Processo de purificação da goma de cajueiro: aspectos técnicos e ambientais.

• Ano de defesa: 2015
• Autor(a) principal: Barbosa, Manuella Macêdo
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Engenharia química; Frutas; Polissacarídeos; Caju; Ultrassom; Solubilidade
• Link de acesso: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/13774

The cashew gum is a heteropolysaccharide, exudate of cashew tree, which presents with an innovative alternative to the better utilization of cashew crop. This study is pioneering and innovative because it uses the combined ethanol precipitation and application of ultrasound to increase yields and improve technological characteristics of cashew gum.The exudate cashew has attracted attention due to its characteristics of sustainability, biodegradability and biosafety. The objective of this work was to study the influence of grain size, temperature, time, alcohol ration and application of ultrasound parameters in the purification of cashew gum. The reduction in color of the cashew gum by adsorption on amberlite resins, thermogravimetric characteristics of this polysaccharide and the environmental impact caused by the purification of cashew gum in laboratory scale were evaluated also. For purification of cashew gum, nodules were first crushed and dried at 60 ° C. For the selection of purification parameters exudates smaller size of particles than 2 mm, 1 mm , 500 and 250 microns in increments temperature 20-70 ° C and time 15 to 120 minutes were studied . After selecting the parameters, the particles were milled, sieved, solubilized, filtered, decanted and dried, producing a purified gum. It was observed that the temperature does not significantly influence the solubility of the cashew gum. It has been found that the use of ultrasound in the purification process of the cashew gum accelerates the nucleation, resulting in better yields, in shorter rest time for the precipitation. The best conditions for the purification of gum were as follows: size of particle of 500 microns, time of agitation of 30 minutes, temperature at 30 ° C, the proportion of the solution cashew gum/ ethanol (v / v) of 1:4.5, application of ultrasound for 2 minutes and precipitation time of 90 minutes. Amberlite resins which showed better performance in discoloration of cashew gum were the FPA- 54, SP - 850 and XAD - 4. It was observed that the glass transition temperature of cashew gum was similar to that of arabic gum, being around 50 ° C, and the temperature of onset of thermal decomposition of this polysaccharide ( 241.5 ° C) is higher than the arabic gum ( 210.3 ° C ) , thus the cashew gum is being promising as the encapsulating agent for food and pharmaceutical industry. It was found that the steps that generated the highest percentage of environmental impacts for obtaining the gum in laboratory scale were grinding/sieving and sedimentation