Effect of temperature on gel extraction process from aloe vera leaves

Aloe vera has drawn attention for its commercial importance in the preparation of nutritional, medicinal and cosmetic products. Temperature is an important criterion for processing of aloe vera to preserve its biological activity. In this investigation the principle of centrifugation was employed for the extraction of gel from aloe vera leaves. The experiment was planned with treatments as three level of centrifuge temperature (50C, 100C and 320C), at varying centrifuge rotating speed and centrifuge duration. The effect of temperature, on gel recovery and quality parameters like viscosity of gel, refractive index of gel, optical density of gel, and TSS content of gel, were studied. It was concluded that the extraction of gel from aloevera should be carried out at 50C temperature for 10000 rpm speed and 30 min duration of centrifuge, so as to obtain higher gel recovery and good quality gel. Higher temperature reduces viscosity which leads decrease in biological activity of aloevera gel.