THE ISOLATION OF GUM FROM DELONIX REGIA, ITS MODIFICATION USING BORAX (DISODIUMTETRABORATE DECAHYDRATE) AND ITS CHARACTERIZATION

Delonix regia popularly known as the flamboyant plant because of its onyx attractive color has been generally cultivated in the tropics. Although it was widely cultivated in the 19th century, yet the native habitat of the flamboyant tree was unknown until the 1930s, when it was retraced to native growing in the wild in Madagascar. The uses of Delonix regia as binders in drugs, adhesives, stabilizers, etc. have been some of its numerous applications in the field of science and biomedicine and this is because of the properties it possesses. 

The gum present in the seed of Delonix regia which is isolated and extracted using isopropanol (propan-2-ol) has been the process highlighted in this project and the modification of the extract with borax (disodium tetraborate decahydrate) which forms a complex. The use of borax in modifying the glycosidic polymer of the gum serves as a cross link with the polymers giving special properties to the raw or native gum and this is done in different concentration.

The comparison between the proximate analyses (i.e. moisture content, ash content, protein content, pH determination, fats and oil content) carried out on raw gum of Delonix regia and the modified gum reveal some distinct changes in physical structure of the two samples as concentration increases with an exception to protein. The result from the proximate analyses shows that dynamic changes occur in intensity with increase in concentration of the borax; and when characterize using the Fourier transformation infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), these changes failed to exist as the intensity of the peaks remained fairly the same even with the increase in concentration of the borax solution in comparison to the raw gum. This simply explains that the modification has no strong effect on the organic functional group of the glycosidic bond of the gum.

Key words: Delonix regia, gum, borax, characterization and Fourier Transformation Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy.