The effects of crude C. inophyllum seed oil to silica gel mass ratio and number of stages on the isolation of wax

Calophyllum inophyllum is one of the most notable mangrove species that grows a lot in the coastal areas of the Indonesian archipelago. Despite its long lifespan (50 years) and abundant seed oil production, this plant has not been utilized optimally. Wax is reported as a constituent of C. inophyllum seed oil, but the quantity has not been discovered yet. Wax has been commonly used as ingredient in coating, cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. The aims of this work were to separate wax from C. inophyllum seed oil in high purity and investigate the effects of crude C. inophyllum to silica gel mass ratio and the stages number on wax isolation. Silica gel was employed to adsorb crude C. inophyllum seed oil. Mass ratios of C. inophyllum seed oil to silica gel used in this work were 1:4, 1:2, and 1:1 (g/g). After that, the seed oil adsorbed onto silica gel was extracted by soxhlet extraction with hexane as the solvent. Wax was separated by putting the hexane extract in cold storage at 4 ºC for 24 h. Furthermore, wax obtained was analyzed by High-Temperature Gas Chromatography (HT-GC) and confirmed by Thin-Layer Chromatography (TLC). It was found that wax (purity 93.2 % and yield 0.4 %) was best isolated by employing two-stage of adsorption-extraction, with crude C. inophyllum seed oil to silica gel mass ratio of 1:1 (g/g), followed by crystallization in cold acetone for 24 h. Moreover, wax content in crude C. inophyllum seed oil was 0.43%.