Study On Cleaner Production Technology For Diosgenin From Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H.Wright

The Wastewater from diosgenin production of Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H. Wright was of great acidity, high organic matter concentration and carbohydrates produced in the process of asylums hydrolyzed .The rivers which the Wastewater poured into directly without any treatment from the diosgenin factories were polluted seriously, which had been a hard nut to crack of the healthy development of the industry. In this paper, the new technology of extracting diosgenin was studied here in detail, the cleaner production technology was used firstly to extract Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H. Wright and petrol was replaced by ethanol to extract diosgenin.The five different cleaner production technologies were investigated: extracting dioscin directly, extracting dioscin after natural fermentation, extracting dioscin after solid-state fermentation, extracting dioscin after two-enzyme hydrolysis, extracting dioscin after fermentation by Aspergillus niger. Results were shown that the extracting dioscin after natural fermentation was the best cleaner production process.The main results of cleaner production process were as follows:1. 40 grams of dry Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H.Wright powder (about 100 grams of fresh Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H. Wright) were naturally fermented for 24 hours.2. The optimal extracting dioscin time was 6 hours.3. 10 grams of dioscin were hydrolyzed by 20 ml of 1mol/L sulfuric-acid.4. The optimal acid hydrolysis time was one hour.5. The best Diosgenin extraction time was 4 hours.6. 3 grams of activated carbon was added into 10 grams total dioscin.The results showed: the volume of total dioscin was reduced below 10% of the original materials after use of cleaner production process reduces. Acid consumption was decreased 90%. The volume of Wastewater was reduced 75%. The COD of Wastewater was reduced greatly. Diosgenin yield was increased 6.46%. The purity of the product was improved, and product was cleanneass. The melting point of diosgenin reached to 198°C, in accord with the Chinese Pharmacopoeia standards of the factory.The new technology using ethanol instead of petrol was shown as follows:(1) The extraction time of 10 grams of dry hydrolyzed Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H. Wright was 6 hours. (2) The optimal volume of No. 1 reagent was 200 ml. (3) The optimal volume of calcium sulfate amount was 3g. (4) 0.4 grams of activated carbon were added into 10 grams of hydrolyzed production of Dioscorea Zingiberensis C.H. Wright. Compared with petrol extraction, diosgenin extracted by ethanol is a new technology, which improves diosgenin yield and quality, reduces costs, replaces the non-renewable by renewable resources, and improves production safety.