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2. Ash content
Ash is the inorganic material obtained from the residue or remainder combustion of organic materials. The mineral content of a material can be seen from ash content inside material. Ash content has
effects on the purity levels of pectin. The higher ash content inside pectin, the purity of pectin is lower. If the ash content in pectin powder is high, the percentage of pectin content contained inside the pectin
powder is lower and purity level of pectin powder is also low. Ash content of pectin is affected by inorganic residues contained on raw materials, methods of extraction and isolation of pectin Kalapathy
and Proctor 2001. Ash content of obtained pectin powder obtained ranged between 0.74-0.94. Ash content of pectin
powder had a value of less than 1. Ash content of pectin extracted from sugar palm seed still below the maximum values by The Council of European Communities 1998 that said ash content of pectin should
not more than 1. Results of analysis of variance showed that the microwave power, extraction time, and interaction between microwave power and extraction time significantly affected the ash content of pectin
Appendix 3b. The relationship between microwave power and time of extraction to the ash content of pectin can be seen in Figure 11.
Figure 11. The relationship between microwave power and extraction time to ash content. The highest ash content in this research was pectin with treatment microwave power 800 W for 7
minutes for 0.94. The lowest ash contain obtained from the pectin with treatment microwave power 600 W for 3 minutes that is 0.74. This value were still below the limit of ash content inside pectin from The
Council of European Communities 1998 which maximum level is 1. Ash content of the pectin obtained from sugar palm seed was quite high. It is suggested because of sugar palm seed from Arenga
westerhoutii Griff. tree is contain high amount of minerals such as Calcium 965.07 mgkg and Phosphorus 270.71 mgkg Suthiluk et al. 2009.
The improvements in ash content were proportional to the power and duration of microwave heating. Kalapathy and Proctor 2001 stated that ash content of pectin will increase proportional with acid
concentration, temperature, and time required for extraction. This is caused by ability of acid to dissolve the natural mineral materials extracted that increase with increasing concentrations of acid, temperature,
and reaction time. Dissolved minerals will also precipitate mixed with pectin in precipitation step with alcohol. The higher the microwave power would effect on increasing extraction temperature, the kinetics
of protopectin hydrolysis reaction increased so the resulting ash content also increases. Ash content is one of the quality parameters of pectin. The lower ash content, the higher the quality
of pectin, because it is indicate the purity of pectin. Ash content is one factor that determined the purity level of pectin. Ash content is affected by its raw materials and its extraction method. According to Meyer
1985, in fruits and vegetables, protopectin present in the form of calcium-magnesium pectic. Increasing the hydrolysis protopectin reaction will result in increasing component of Ca and Mg in the extraction
solution.
d b
c ab
b a
0,2 0,4
0,6 0,8
1 1,2
600 800
A sh
c on
te nt
Microwave Power Watt 3 min
5 min 7 min
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3. Equivalent weight