Production of nicotinic acid from tobacco wastes

Abstract

Tobacco contains nicotine alkaloid in high concentration which is a promising component for the production of nicotinic acid using hot concentrated nitric acid. Nicotinic acid which sometimes called niacin is a vitamin B complex compound which can be used in pharmaceuticals, and food plants. This work studied the production of nicotinic acid from tobacco wastes using petroleum ether to extract the Nicotine, 69% concentrated nicotinic acid as the oxidant, in the oxidation technique and the properties of nicotine and nicotinic acid were determined i.e. density, pH, and solubility. The tobacco waste samples were collected from Busunju village in Wakiso district along hoima road. Bench scale experiments were done in this research to determine the yield of nicotinic acid when treated with 69% Hot Concentrated nitric acid. Then results indicated that the yield of nicotinic acid increases with increase in the amount of hot acid till it reached a maximum yield 25ml with 100ml of hot acid. Indicating that the yield of nicotinic acid increases with increase in the amount of hot nitric acid till a point when there is ionic interference. The maximum Yield of nicotinic acid produced was 25ml from 100ml of hot concentrated nitric acid. And the lowest yield obtained was 17ml from 85ml of hot concentrated nitric acid.