Evaluation of Potential Application for Sunt Pod Extracts (Acacia Nilotica) in Leather Tanning

摘要

The current investigation was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of using sunt, Acacia nilotica, pods extract in leather tanning. Skins from 16 Barki rams aged 12-18 months were cured and prepared for tanning using sunt pod extract. The sunt pods were collected and dried at 25 degrees C for 5 days. Thereafter, the dried pods were ground by a 0.3 mm fineness grinder and were further subjected to the extraction procedure. Three chemical additives, namely NaOH, Na2SO3 and Na2CO3 were used for the extraction at 70 and 90 degrees C. The influences of both types of chemical additive and extraction temperature on extraction yield were determined. The extract characteristics in terms of stiasny number, hide powder, tannins, non-tannins and total phenol contents were also analyzed. The results showed that increasing extraction temperature increased (P<0.05) extraction yield and improved the quality of the extract regardless of chemical additive type. Meanwhile, the extraction using either Na2SO3 in aqueous solution or by water at 90 degrees C yielded the best extract characteristics. The elevated concentrations of condensed and hydrolysable tannins obtained in our results point to the possibility of utilizing sunt pod extract in tanning or re-tanning of leather rather than using traditional tanning reagents.