MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF' GAULTHERASE INACTIVATION KINETICS FOR THE GAULTHERIN PRODUCTION FROM WINTERGREEN (Gaulteria fragantissima)

Abstract

Abstract

Wintergreen (Gaultheria fragantissima) is the source of the essential oil of wintergreen which

is comprised predominantly of methyl salicylic. During this time wintergreen is not yet

economically developed because of the lack of the cultivation technology. One of effort that is

needed to be studied beside the cultivation tecnology and  the wintergren oil quality

development is the product diversification. wintergreen comprised by far the highest

concentration of both free salicylic and total salicylic acid which is expected of a plant known

for the formation of the wintergreen oil, an essential oil consisting primarily of methyl salicylic.

The concentration of total salicylate found in wintergreen is over 20 fold greater than the total

salicylic concentration (salicylic and any derivates combined) found in Filipendula, and 100

fold greater than that found in Lemon Thyme. The active form of salicylic acid in wintergreen

is Gaultherin. Gaultherin has many properties related to human health. Gaultherin consists of

methyl salicylic conjugated to the disaccharide, primeverose. When plant tissues are disrupted

the endogenous gaultherin is rapidly lost, presumably by enzymatic hydrolysis with the release

of methyl salicylic. The problem is until this time there is not yet available an effective method

for the gaultherin extraction. The difficulties faced on the gaultherin production are the fact

that along the gaultherin extraction. and along with the disruption of the wintergreen tissue,

the gaultherin is hydrolyzed into its individual components which are methyl salicylic and

disaccharide. The alternative process for the gaultherin production from wintergreen is the

gaultherin production process by enzyme inactivation and  extraction process in an inactivation

extractor using a n organic solvent (alcoholic solvent extraction). This paper is intended to

study the enzyme inactivation rate which is play an important role in the dimension

determination of the process equipments. Enzyme inactivation can be describes as first orde

reaction. The enzyme inactivation constant  k_p is the temperature, pressure, and water

concentration function. The dependency, model of  the temperature based on Arhenius type

while the pressure dependency  is based on Eyring equation.

Keywords : gaultherin, inactivation. kinetics