Extraction and characterization of cellulose from Nicotiana Tabacum

Nicotiana Tabacum or known as tobacco plant is type in Solanaceae that originally can be found in the tropical and subtropical America but nowadays it is commercially cultivated worldwide. The tobacco plantation in Malaysia generally is for making cigarette as final product but the leaves part of tobacco plant are used while the stalks are left out as agricultural waste. However, the stalks actually containing cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin material that are valuable. These three types of natural polymer can be extracted to be converted into useful product like paper instead of become agricultural waste. Currently, little study is done to investigate the cellulose content in Nicotiana tabacum plants. Soxhlet method is used in extractives extraction where three different solvents namely ethanol+toluene, ethanol+benzene and ethanol are used to observe the total extracted amount. Besides that, maceration and decoction method were used to differentiate between these methods.