Journal of Korea TAPPI ISSN:0253-3200(Print) 펄프종이기술

Indigo (Polygonum tinctorium L.) is a typical blue dye which had been used from ancient times. This study was going to shade the complicated traditional methods extracting indigo dye by the fermentation and producing as adsorbate on calcium hydroxide, which says so called as the ‘Indigo lime’. Accordingly we were going to make indigo through the hydrolysis of the hot water extractives of indigo leaves simply.

During hot-water extraction, β-glucosidase which required hydrolysis of the linkage between indigo and glucose was not activated. To achieve this goal, indican was acid-hydrolyzed to glucose and indigo. The acetic acid, citric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sulfuric acid were used for the hydrolysis of hot water extractives. The hydrolysis conditions of extractives performed in water bath at 80℃ for 120 minutes and in an autoclave for 120 minutes.

In the acid hydrolysis of extracted indican by hot water, the indican yields of acetic acid and hydrochloric acid hydrolysis were higher than sulfuric acid in water bath. Also, the indican yield of hydrochloric acid hydrolysis was better than sulfuric acid in autoclave. The hot water extracted indican was confirmed by HPLC analysis and its structure was confirmed by UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopy, compared with isolated indigo and commercial synthesized indigo.

This improved extraction and hydrolysis methods can be replace the traditional indigo making method.