Study on pre processing and storage conditions for extraction of chlorophyll from altemantherasessilis (L.) and knetics of degradation of chlorophyll

Abstract

Extraction of chlorophyll from various plants is a key topic of scientific and commercial interest Altemantherasessilis was used for theextraction of chlorophyll as a locally available plant in Sri Lanka. The effect of methods of pre processing and storage conditions of A. sessilis on the chlorophyll content was studied. Mechanical grinding was found to be asuperior pre-processing method compared to blanching and drying. Optimum storage conditions were ambient temperature for one day storage and refrigeration at 15°C for more than one day storage. The kinetic studies on chlorophyll degradation revealed that bothchlorophyll a-and b degradation followed the first-order reaction model. The temperature dependence of the rate constant was adequately modeled by the Arrhenius equation. The activation energy values were 3.0143 kcal/mol and 2.78 kcal/mol for chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, respectively.