Abstract

LOPEZ HERNANDEZ, Orestes Darío; TORRES AMARO, Leonid; GONZALEZ SANABIA, María Lidia  and  RODRIGUEZ FERRADA, Carlos Alberto. Study of spray drying of water extract from Boerhaavia erecta L.. Rev Cubana Plant Med [online]. 2008, vol.13, n.4, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1028-4796.

INTRODUCTION: the use of plant extracts increasingly extends in the pharmaceutical industry for the manufacture of many products. To obtain them in powder form, the spray drying is employed because it is a method that preserves the natural components of these products. The presence of compounds like sugars makes the spray drying of these products difficult since they adhere to the internal surface of the equipment and this brings about low rate of product recovery. Use of inert additives such as starch, cyclodextrines, lactose and maltodextrine favors recovery of product because they act as drying coadjuvants. OBJECTIVES: to determine the additive concentration that allows reaching the highest performance in drying water extract from Boerhaavia erecta L. METHODS: the influence of several additives on the performance of the spray drying process was researched. RESULTS: it was possible to obtain at the test bed dry extract that fulfils the physical, chemical and microbiological quality requirements, with over 90 % performance. CONCLUSIONS: the presence of additives in the process of B. erecta extract drying increases the performance and the final product fulfils the set quality requirements.

Keywords : Spray drying; Boerhaavia erecta; water extract; performance.