The search for bioactive compounds from natural sources has been on-going for centuries. The synthesis and/or isolation of these valuable compounds make them reasonably expensive; in addition their production is often wasteful given the quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) often used. In recent years research in ionic liquids (ILs) and biomass dissolution has increased due to the ' beauty' of this relatively novel solvent to effectively break down the hard matrix of difficult biopolymers. This positive step in biomass dissolution offers the possibility of completely separating lignocellulosic biomass into its major polymeric components: cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses. We can therefore apply this knowledge to the extraction of bioactive compounds ,from biomass. Herein two types of biomass were considered; land biomass (cinnamon bark) and aquatic biomass (macroalgae). This project involved two major phases. Firstly, evaluating the effect of IL pre-treatment of these types of biomass against conventional methods such as autoclave extraction, Soxhlet extraction, hot and cold maceration, hydrodistillation and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. These methods were compared in terms' of the percentage yields of. the extract recovered and their overall feasibility. As this project specifically targeted higher value materials particularly .from macroalgae another major part of this project was the development of an experimental protocol for the evaluation of the biological activity of extracts recovered from the brown algae. The tests chosen were the antioxidant and anti-diabetic properties and again were evaluated after the protocols were developed. These tests were chosen for their growing importance to society. , It has been shown that the extracts recovered from the ionic liquid & solution were higher than that from the conventional methods employed. Nevertheless the extracts from the conventional methods had higher biological activity than those from the ionic liquid. Ionic liquid contamination and recovery of pure materials was also complicated due to the nature of ionic liquids.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:602697 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Nimoh, Margaret Mary |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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