Leaching Processes For Biological Substances
Many biological organic and inorganic substances occur in a mixture of different components in a solid. In order to separate the desired solute constituent or remove an undesirable solute component from the solid phase, the solid is brought into contact with a liquid. The solid and liquid are in contact and the solute or solutes can diffuse from the solid into the solvent, resulting in separation of the components originally in the solid. This separation process is called liquid-solid leaching or simply leaching. Because in leaching the solute is being extracted from the solid this is also called extraction. In leaching, when an undesirable component is removed from a solid with water, the process is called washing.
In the biological and food processing industries, many products are separated from their original natural structure by liquid-solid leaching. An important process for example is the leaching of sugar from sugar beets with hot water. In the production of vegetable oils, organic solvents such as hexane, acetone, and/or ether are used to extract oil from nuts beans and seeds.
In the pharmaceutical industry, many different pharmaceutical products are obtained by leaching plant roots, leaves, and stems.
Read more about this topic: Leaching (chemistry)
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