Natural rubber (NR) latex collected from Hevea brasiliensis rubber tree exists as a colloidal suspension with 30% dry rubber content (DRC). For convenient use and transportation, the latex is concentrated by centrifugation process. Through this process, the 60% DRC concentrated NR latex and 5% DRC skim latex as a by-product were produced. After using acid coagulation of skim latex, the skim rubber is obtained to use as a low-grade application due to high amount of non-rubber components as impurities. The water portion remaining after the coagulation of skim rubber consists of various water-soluble materials such as sugars, lipids, proteins and minerals, which can cause the water pollution if serum is directly discharged into the environment without proper treatment. However, 1.5% of L-quebrachitol was found in skim latex. It can be used in many applications such as a starting material for the synthesis of bioactive materials and inositol pharmacy. Thus, this work is an attempt to investigate the most effective extraction method of L-quebrachitol from skim latex. It was found that the appropriate solvent for extraction L-quebrachitol at high temperature and for recrystallization at low temperature is ethanol. The yield of L-quebrachitol about 2-3% by weight of solid serum was obtained. Moreover, a sweetness and antibacterial activity were also studied for its further applications. It was found that the sweetness of L-quebrachitol was twice than that of sucrose. No antibacterial activity of L-quebrachitol against Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans was found.
Parallel plate capacitor designed to determine the dry rubber content in natural rubber latex
