Characterization Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose from Alpha Cellulose Betung Bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper)

Objective: Sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na-CMC) is one of pharmaceutical excipients that can be used to increase viscosity in topical, oral and parenteral pharmaceutical formulation, beside that it can also be used as binder and disintegrant in tablet formulation. Betung bamboo is one of natural material that contains high concentration of holocellulose for about 83.80%. The purpose of this study was to characterize Na-CMC obtained through alkalization and carboxymethylation reaction. Methods: Alkalization was carried out using 25% sodium hydroxide and 1.7% sodium tetraborate. Carboxymethylation was done with sodium monochloroacetate to alpha cellulose ratio 1.3 : 1. Product was identified by FTIR and further characterized by XRD, SEM, DS value and pH. Result: The product was white colour powder which has similarities of its infrared spectrum to reference. Other characteristics that showed similarities to reference was degree of substitution 0.7073, pH 7.61, average of particle size distribution 71.54 μm, moisture content 5.88%, sulfated ash content 32.64% and loss on drying 9.85%. Conclusion: Based on the comparison of X-ray diffraction, there is similarity between reference and product (Na-CMC) from betung bamboo. However, there were differences in melting temperature, viscosity and morphological analysis with SEM to reference.