Production boundary limit in commercial production of Ginseng Jawa
Abstract
This final year project (FYP) aims to study the production boundary limit in commercial production of Ginseng Jawa. The experimental study begins by carrying an investigative experiment on the plant’s growth curve of Ginseng Jawa (Talinum Paniculatum Gaertn.) which was planted from its seedling form. The study covers on the boundary limits in providing raw material sample for extraction which is bounded by the number of plants required and plantation area. Investigative experiment was done in order to measure the concentration bio-active compounds contained in certain amount of extract crude. From the study and investigative experiment, the production boundary limits in all steps of processing involved for production of Ginseng Jawa was determined. An extraction process was carried on using two concentrations of Ginseng Jawa which were 10 % and 1 % with two extraction period of 2 hours and 4 hours. From the experimental data, a boundary on extraction was obtained. A backward calculation for scaling up purpose was made to obtain the capacity input for a designed herbal industry. Based on data obtained from the growth curve and simulated calculation made to produce an estimated of 1000 L extract crude, the capacity of raw material required is approximately 170,000 plants and the area of plantation and number of plants required is 0.85 hectare. The experiment carried out managed to produce 17% of dry mass from the fresh plant. Also, a mass of 0.13 kg flavonoid were determined from each extraction of 1000 L.