Abstrakt

Physicochemical and FTIR studies on Acacia senegal and Anacardium occidentale blends

Idongesit Udo, Stevens A Odoemelam, Nnabuk Okon Eddy

Acacia senegal and Anacardium occidentale gums exudate were obtained from a village in Jigawa state, Nigeria. Physicochemical properties were analysed for various blend ratios of Acacia senegal and Anacardium occidentale gums (namely 100:00, 80:20, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 20:80 and 00:100). Anacardium occidentale gum is brownish yellow in colour while Acacia senegal gum is white in colour. The two gums absorb maximally at 210 and 200 nm and their conductivity values are 132.40 and 186 µs/cm respectively. Other physical parameters of the gums were salinity (which was similar for the two gums, i.e., 0.1 µs/cm), total dissolved solid (68.40 and 87.80 for Anacardium occidentale and Acacia senegal gum respectively) and turbidity (90 and 27 FAU for Acacia senegal and Anacardium occidentale respectively). Blending at all proportion presented different colours, wavelength of maximum absorption exhibited a gradual reduction at Acacia senegal: Anacardium occidentale blend ratio of 4:1 (205 nm) and gradually stabilizes at 210 nm when the ratio was varied from 1:1 to 2:3 and finally to 1:4. Conductivity was found to decrease from 185.30 to 138.80 µs/cm as the blend ratio of Acacia senegal: Anacardium occidentale changes from 4:1 to 1:4. Similar trend was observed for salinity and total dissolved solid. The FTIR spectra of the blends reveal three set of information. For some blend ratios, the frequency of IR absorption increases with increase in intensity, in others, the frequency and the intensity decreases while in the remaining blends, some functional groups that were present in the parent gums were missing. Therefore, blending significantly alter the physicochemical and FTIR properties of Acacia senegal and Anacardium occidentale gums.