Mass transfer enhancement through optimized extraction of a natural dye from Bougainvillea glabra Juss. bracts

Abstract

Synthetic dyes are today’s established dyes for applications such as textile coloration. However, there are some serious drawbacks of these new dyes. Therefore, there is increasing interest in the natural dyes. The present study was emphasized to use the optimized extraction conditions so as to get maximum amount of the dye from bracts of Bougainvillea glabra Juss. Taguchi design was implemented to know optimum extraction conditions: 150 micron particle size, 1:20 solid-solvent ratio, one hour extraction and enzyme addition as assistance for extraction. The dye was extracted from both optimized and control experiments. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and UV-VIS spectroscopy techniques were used to identify chemical nature of the extracted dye. The absorbance, mass transfer rates and dye yields were compared. The optimized extraction showed mass transfer rate of about 3.3 times enhanced than that in the control extraction. The yield was 9.88 % more in case of optimized extraction.