L-Quebrachitol from acidic serum obtained after rubber coagulation of skim natural rubber latex

摘要

A scheme for retrieving L-quebrachitol, which is a starting material for drugs to treat diabetes and cancer, from the acidic serum obtained after acid coagulation of rubber particles in skim natural rubber latex was proposed in this work. The serum was firstly treated with Ba(OH)(2), cationic and anionic exchangers and then with activated carbon. The mixture was finally crystallized with ethanol 3 times consecutively. After evaporating the remaining liquid, the white solid was obtained and characterized with FTIR and HPLC-ELSD techniques. The results of mass, pH, electrical conductivity and % Brix values were reported for each stream in the process so that the experiment could be repeated. It was found that the FTIR spectra had characteristic peaks similar to those of the commercial L-quebrachitol and the HPLC results showed that the solid contained a large fraction of L-quebrachitol with small fractions of other impurities. The proposed process could be annexed in the concentrated rubber industry without any modification of the conventional operation.