Hydrolysis and quantification of glucose from eragrostis plana nees

Resumen

Annoni grass is an invasive and difficult to control plant that originated in South Africa and was accidentally introduced to Brazil. The species invades Brazil and other countries such as the United States and Uruguay. The state with the largest invasion is Rio Grande do Sul, which is worrisome due to the presence of the Pampas biome. The most effective method to control this invader is the use of herbicides, but after application, the biomass of the species remains in the area in the process of decomposition, releasing allelopathic substances that interfere with the development of native species. Therefore, it is important to provide alternatives for the use of this biomass. Thus, the study aims to standardize the method of subcritical water hydrolysis of biomass of capim-annoni and quantify the glucose in the hydrolysates. For this purpose, Annoni grass plants were collected in their vegetative stage, and the material was dried and ground. In the hydrolysis process, the variables time, temperature and water/solid ratio were evaluated. After hydrolysis, the glucose in the hydrolysates was quantified using the DNS (dinitrosalic acid) method and quantification in spectrophotometer. The best hydrolysis condition to obtain glucose occurred at a temperature of 220 ºC in the highest water/solid ratio for 2 minutes. A high amount of glucose was also obtained at the temperature of 180 ºC in the lowest water/solid ratio in the times of 8 and 10 minutes. The process of hydrolysis with subcritical water was efficient to obtain glucose in the studied biomass.