Sri Kadarwati, Alfiah Yunita Cahyani, Edy Cahyono
Vanillin as the main flavor and aroma compound in vanilla could be prepared from eugenol; the main component in clove essential oil. This study was aimed to investigate the catalytic transformation of eugenol to vanillin using a beta- cyclodextrin polymer catalyst. The kinetics of the catalytic transformation was evaluated. The isolation of eugenol was carried out by vacuum fractionation distillation, resulted a eugenol-containing fraction with a purity ranging from 70.74 to 72.99%. The beta-cyclodextrin polymer catalyst was prepared by the aromatic substitution of hydroxyl groups in cyclodextrin using sodium hydroxide and epichlorohydrin. The presence of epoxy (-COC) groups in beta-cyclodextrin polymers was indicated by the absorbance peak at a wavenumber of 720 cm-1. This crystalline polymer as indicated by the XRD pattern showed a spongy surface morphology as imaged by scanning electron microscope. The formation of vanillin as the transformation product was detected by the gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer detector. The polymerized beta-cyclodextrin catalyst showed an excellent activity >90%, but with a little bit low (∼20%) selectivity. The FTIR spectra also convinced the formation of vanillin carbonyl functional group at a wavenumber of 1700 cm-1. The kinetics study showed that the catalytic transformation of eugenol to vanillin using a polymerized beta-cyclodextrin catalyst well followed (with an R2 value of 0.9556) a first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.0013 min. © 2025 Author(s).
Chemistry Study Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Semarang, Semarang, 50229, Indonesia
