Elemental analysis of chitin from extraction of different ages of Leucaena Leucochephala with HCl: article

Chitin was obtained by chemical treatment of Leucaena Leucochephala. Different aging of the raw materials were used to study their effect of nitrogen content in the pods. In this study, chitin in Leucaena Leucochephala was extracted using chemical methods by using HCl. The extracted chitin was then characterized by using elemental analyzer. The results obtained revealed that the percentage of nitrogen before extraction for sample 1 until sample 6 is 4.8006, 4.2812, 3.8567, 3.7966, 3.7101 and 3.8065 respectively. The percentage of nitrogen and carbon content in the samples was significantly reduced after extraction. According to the results of elemental analysis, the N% value in younger pods is closer to the theoretical value than adult pods. The purity of chitin purity of chitin in younger pods is higher than chitin in the adult pods.