ASSESSMENT OF LEATHER QUALITY PRODUCED BY OPTIMIZING LIMING AND INCREASING REACTIVITY OF TANNINS OBTAINED FROM CAESALPINIA CORIARIA AND PARKIA CLAPPERTONIANA

Abstract
Tannin chemically stabilizes hides and skins against bacterial attack, transforming the raw material into leather. In the search for alternative sources of tanning materials, only a few of these materials have shown true value as commercial products in the vegetable tannin field. The negative effect of trivalent chromium both to the tanners and the environment has increased the search for alternative tanning materials which could be eco-friendly.Pods of Caesalpinia coriaria (DD) and husk of Parkia clappertoniana (PC) tannins were extracted using Procter apparatus and Soxhlet apparatus. The crude extracts of both DD and PC were purified using gel permeation chromatography and modified using sodium bisulphite and pancreatic trypsin .The modified tannins were characterized using UV-VIS, FT-IR, TLC, sorptive capacity and binding ability. The modified tannin and 16different tannin ratios of DD and PC were used in the tanning of goat skin. The result of the qualitative and quantitative assessment placed DD to be hydrolysable tannins with 47% pure tannins and PC to be condensed tannins with 42.33% pure tannins. This shows that the two plants have more than 10 % threshold tannin content required for commercial extraction. The TLC of methanolic extract of DD and PC using glacial acetic acid indicated the components of the tannins to be 3,4,6,tri- O- Galloyl-D-glucose, tannic acid ,pyrogallol and gallic acid for DD, and catechol, gallic acid for PC. The ultraviolet visible absorption spectra for the modified PC and DD was found to be lower than that of the unmodified. A peak for modified PC was found to be at 460 nm while the unmodified was at 480 nm. The use of sodium bisulphite to modified PC and DD shows a good effect by reducing the large molecular weight of PC and increasing the reactivity of PC and DD. The use of pancreatic trypsin was found to be suitable for PC. PC extract has the best properties in terms of binding and sorption by 45.50% and 95% respectively at 10% sodium bisulphite followed by vii DD extract which has 15.33% and 46% binding and sorptive capacity respectively at 10 % sodium bisulphite. On the contrary, DD showed no significant change as the concentration of pancreatic trypsin increased. Also, the binding capacity of PC increased from 12% to 25% with the increase in the concentration of pancreatic trypsin from 2% to 8%,whereas DD showed no significant change. The pH (4.03) of DD could inhibit enzyme activity. The FT-IR spectra of modified sample of DD gave similar absorption bands with the unmodified except with the removal of three bands (1624.5, 965.4 and 670.9 cm-1) which arose from C = O, C = CH and Ar-H bending out of plane. Also, PC spectra gave similar bands except the presence of C – H stretching in aromatic methoxyl groups (2926.0; 84.933 cm-1) in the modified which was not found in the unmodified. This could be attributed to the break of bond or hydrolysis of the high molecular weight of the tanning by the reagent (sodium bisulphite).The liming process was optimized using Box Behnken design The quadratic polynomial model was used to characterize the liming process. The plots showed that these independent variables significantly influenced the liming conditions. In this work, it was established that the best condition for the liming process was found to be: 1.5 %, lime concentration, 20 hr and 300 % water. The quality of the leathers was determined according to the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemist Society (IULTCS) official methods. The values obtained, met the standard requirement for vegetable leathers. A careful selection of the percentage liming used in the liming process and Fatliquoring of the tanned leather with vegetable tannins such as DD and PC with modification using sodium bisulphite and pancreatic trypsin could be used to produce a quality leather and serve as a substitute for chrome tanning or as complementary, since it is possible to get Shrinkage Temperature of 90 oC.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, FACULTY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA
Keywords
ASSESSMENT,, LEATHER QUALITY,, OPTIMIZING LIMING,, TANNINS,, REACTIVITY,, CAESALPINIA CORIARIA,, PARKIA CLAPPERTONIANA,
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