Nicotine Extraction from Tobacco Leaves in Tubular Extractor

Abstract

Tobacco has one of the largest plantation areas in Indonesia, especially for cigarette raw material. With Framework Convention on Tobacco Control coming in 2003 on a global scale and several government rules about cigarette control on a national scale, some works are needed to prevent the decrease of farmer's earning. One of the things that can be done is using tobacco as a raw material for other products, such as pesticides. Tobacco waste has 0.6 - 4 percent nicotine sulfate which is an effective insecticide. Nicotine inside tobacco is a strong neurotoxin that can work really fast and very effective on insects and molds. Nicotine extraction is conducted using ethanol as a solvent in a tubular extractor. The extraction process is done in a bed with 30 cm height and 3 cm diameter for 100 minutes with sampling every 20 minutes on 0.5 mL/minute, 1 mL/minute, and 3 mL/minute solvent flow rate as well as 0.45 mm and 0.9 mm particle diameter variation. Nicotine that is produced from the extraction process is analyzed using HPLC to get the yield from that extraction process. HPLC testing shows that the extraction optimal yield is 10.88 mg, on 1 mL/minute solvent flow rate and 0.45 mm particle diameter.